I have one bio child who had severely complicated birth and toddlerhood which led to us choosing not to have more children. Now that my kid is 9, I regret that decision very much. I, we, have so much love to give. We have briefly discussed fostering. 1) Can you choose to only foster certain age groups? If yes, how realistic is it? 2) we’d be interested in foster newborn-6/7yo. Are there a lot of kids in this age range that need foster homes? What if the age range is newborn to 3yo? How often do infants need a foster home? I would assume that fosterning infants is more often a short term as th ..read more

I (37F) started fostering a (8 going on 9F) girl around the same time I started seriously dating my now boyfriend which was February. He (37M) is a single dad to 2 girls of his own and has been an amazing support and partner for me. We have not met each others’ kids yet but plan on it around the 6 month mark. The question/dilemma I have is that my FD is aware of the relationship despite trying to be discrete on my part and is happy for me but will at times ask about my bf being her dad or stepdad. My FD has zero contact with her bio parents, TPR has been filed and as far as I know an aunt pla ..read more

Our 15FD has not attended school regularly for a lot of her life. Needless to say she has a really hard time with it. Since coming into our care, six months ago, she has had nearly perfect attendance, which she has never had even close to. Her grades fluctuate but when she tries she passes but she doesn’t have a lot of motivation to try or ask for help. Also, since coming into our care, she has gotten $10 a week for perfect attendance. I don’t think the money has been a big motivator for her attendance though. She has gotten a lot of recognition from us and her teachers, and she is really pro ..read more

My 11 yr old FS was placed with us last week, and is incredibly sweet and kind, but definitely has some emotional immaturity and trauma, obviously. I got a call from the school this week that he was absent during his 5th period and when I gently asked him about it, he plainly stated "oh yeah. I was feeling angry so I walked around the school." We discussed that those emotions are normal and going to class with them can be difficult, but if he needs to miss class for a bit, he needs to talk to his teacher first. He kind of shrugged and said "oh okay," so I can't tell if I got the message acros ..read more

Hey everyone. I love this sub there’s so much great advice and experiences shared. My husband and I want to become Foster parents in a couple of years. Currently we are working on getting our home right and improving our physical health (we both have chronic illnesses that are fairly new to us so we want to give one another time to adjust before taking a child in). We know the basics about fostering but what it putting me off is my awful extended family. My step father is violent, rageful and nasty and my mother is cruel, argumentative and volatile. They abused me terribly growing up emotiona ..read more

So after our first placement has left us and we have got our toes in the water to see how this fostering will go. I still want to foster kids but I think if we do we have to wait till baby is older at least 1 year. And either we change our age group to 1-3 years old or 10-18 years old . We just not sure which be better after having a 5 year old with such high needs and high attachments having older kids might be easier. But I worry about the safety of my bio kid more if kid lashes out on us. Our older kids usually pretty nice with the young bio kids and don’t get jealous if I have to give mor ..read more

For those that do overnight respite care for infants, what do resource parents usually send? Formula/baby food, diapers/wipes, portable crib? It will be our first overnight (previously just did daytime care) and I’d like to know what the norm is. I’ll talk with the resource parent to verify, just curious what others have seen. submitted by /u/noiwanttobeanonymous [visit reddit] [comments ..read more

Our teen really wants a job. In short, she’s failing every class in school even though we’ve seen her pass. She also has something after school everyday plus boxing on the weekend. We don’t think it’s best for her to have one. I’m trying to find more ways to explain this to her. I have said she needs to focus on school and she has no time but she doesn’t seem to get it. Any advice? ? submitted by /u/Jessi_finch [visit reddit] [comments ..read more

A relative of my partners who is currently 18 just disclosed some abuse today. She is keen to finish her studies and stay at home despite the fact she's been neglected and physically/emotionally abused for basically her whole life, and is going to cut contact with her abusers and come live with my partner and I (24) once her exams are over. We're financially able to support her - we're in the UK so luckily do not have to worry about college tuition fees. We live in a small flat, but she'll have her own bed and some privacy. I'm just in shock that we had no idea this had been going on at all ..read more

Hi I’m 16m Iv been with my foster mom and dad for like 5 months but I had to see my mom a couple weeks ago and now I have to see her again tomorrow even tho I don’t want to. I think that there gonna make me live with her again but I like rlly rlly rlly don’t want to. The case worker lady said that I don’t rlly get to choose. If I have to live with her again I’ll like for real die but I can’t tell anyone cus I already like cause problems before and I don’t want them to make me go to a different family. I rlly like my foster mom and dad now and I want them to be my real parents what do I do? s ..read more