question

[alliwannado]

Hi there, we have just been on our 3 day training course.... long way to go yet. My question is I have a daughter 6 and son 10 and they asked me do we always have to have a foster child with us. They are worried about not having us to themselves for a while. Does anyone know can you request to have a month or so break between placements...... time to spend with my birth children? I am going with an agency so may get very few placements anyway......? I have asked for ages 0-4yrs so that there is a gap in ages.

[Flower3545]

Hi alliwannado, I'm with a local authority so I'm not sure if the rules are different but I think it would be a poor agency who didn't recognise that foster parents need a break from time to time.

We currently foster newborns and to be honest, and it's well documented on here, I struggle every time I have to move one of ours on so I usually speak to our placements section and tell them I'm having a couple of days/weeks to get my act together.

They have always been very understanding of this. HTH

[alliwannado]

Thanks flower3545. Hopefully I will be able to do the same without the agency frowning upon it.
When did you start fostering? Do you enjoy it or maybe enjoy is the wrong word but its not something you ever regret?
Myself and husband really want to foster but I realise its not just about us when I have 2 birth children. I am hoping they will gain alot from the experiences. I know it won't be a bed of roses and am ready for upset but hoping I can manage their feeling well.

[Flower3545]

Hi alliwannado, we started fostering in 1987

God I'm old Yes I do enjoy the job but I do have regrets, sometimes I feel I could have done a better job with this one or that one, but I have to say that since we began "specialising" in newborn babies only I have loved every minute of it apart from when they leave of course

When we were first approved I voiced a desire to foster babies but was told "oh we hardly ever get babies so you won't have a placement for much of the time" I allowed myself to be steered towards sibling groups of up to 4 children at a time, and true enough, we were always full but for a long time towards the end of doing this I stopped enjoying the job as much and after moving on 2 brothers we'd had for 2 years I said enough is enough, babies only please from now on.

We've had little spells of being empty but not many and I've never been happier with the job.

We found with our dc's that they learned to be very tolerant and indeed protective towards the fc's, you may find this to be the case with your dc's too.