I am single and childfree. I am in my early 40s. I am a psychologist, often supporting children many of whom have experienced trauma, so I am fully aware of the psychological difficulties many children in the care system face.
I am considering fostering mainly because I feel like I would like to have a greater opportunity to support and make a difference to these children’s lives.
However, I would only really like to do short-term / emergency fostering (up to a year or so) because I know it is very challenging work and I don’t think I could cope with a long-term placement as a single person, I think it would be too much for me.
As a single person, I would need to keep working part time, ideally the equivalent hours of 3 days a week, worked flexibly (hopefully my employer would be flexible, I think they probably would). I imagine I would need to care for school age children, due to needing to work. Ideally I’d prefer pre-teen age-group.
Does this sound realistic? I’ve been told that short-term / emergency foster carers need to have at least one adult available at home at all times. I’m intending to contact my local authority to enquire but I’m bot quite ready to do that yet.