"Fostering and Me", tonight, BBC 2 at 9PM

[Lilka]

This time I'm right about the timing and name!

Anyone going to be watching with me?

[suzylee73]

Thanks for the heads up, I would have missed it if you hadn't posted!
I do hope this puts us carers in a good light :)

I'm sick of watching (mostly American) TV and people looking down on foster care as a terrible option. My teenage placement says coming to live with me has been the best thing that ever happened to her :D it's also the best thing that ever happened to me

[Lilka]

That's lovely suzy

My DD1 (and I) still exchange christmas cards with her last foster carer But even though we no longer have contact with any of the others, I remain ever grateful for those carers who gave my kids the best chance possible once they were in care

I know Lorraine's life will be sad to hear about - the circumstances of her return to foster care from her adoptive home, I read an article about it and it's incredibly sad - but I hope it will raise awareness of the importance of FC, when we're facing such a serious shortage of carers

[disneygirl10]

Thanks for the reminder I will be watching.

[Lilka]

Oh that little boy - what a lovely lad

[Lilka]

[Lilka]

Well, FC's certainly don't get £390 a week round here for the most part!

[FamiliesShareGerms]

Ooh, just equalised so not interested in the football anymore, so I'm watching this now

[Lilka]

Go from the beginning if possible families

The FC's she's spoken to are lovely
I cried when she was speaking to Akira (?), seperation from siblings is close to home here. Fabulous work she's done!

[FamiliesShareGerms]

Will watch the beginning on iPlayer when it gets on

[Lilka]

Oh that was an amazing program, really well done and moving

Thomas made me laugh, he must be a challenge for his carer though!!

Making me consider fostering in the future, when DS is older and DD2 hopefully on a more stable footing, at least in her own flat/house. I've thought about that before but the shortage of carers just seems to be getting worse and worse

[suzylee73]

It was lovely :)

I really felt for her when she was reading the social services records.

Thomas was a character! When he said he wanted to go and live with his dad and have a good time you could see in his eyes that even he knew that wasn't going to be his reality. His foster carer looked like he needed a really long holiday haha

I hope it inspires people to foster.

[64x32x24]

Liked this a lot too.

Towards the end, when she met her first foster carers, and they said they had thought about her often, over the years, wondering what had become of her. And she appeared so surprised, as if even now she couldn't quite believe that there are people out there who genuinely care about her.
Made me think, how would her life have been different, if she had always 'known' that there was someone out there, caring and missing her and hoping for the best?
This really underlines, for me, how lovely it would be if it were possible to help a child understand that their previous carers didn't 'reject' them but genuinely cared for them... and still do. Be it through life story work or letters/cards or even direct contact, if appropriate.

But then, this would be yet another demand on FCs time, and on their emotions too.

[Italiangreyhound]

Audley was amazing! What an incredible guy!

[Italiangreyhound]

My goodness, her first foster mum as lovely and how very sad that she wanted to keep her but could not.

Very moving indeed.

[flightywoman]

I've only just caught up with it. I feel so sad for her, all that uncertainty and being moved about and reading what was in her records - I think she was incredibly open and brave to be so honest about what was obviously incredibly painful.

And I wondered if she was thinking about how her life might have been if she had stayed with the first fosterers - different careers maybe but perhaps a happier childhood.

But it was really good to see a programme where the statistics actually mentioned more than once about children going back to their families and where social workers weren't demonised.

[MyFairyKing]

I found this incredibly emotional. Reading her notes must have been so difficult to Lorraine to cope with.