please talk with me about fostering

[letsgrowuplater]

I posted this in 'chat' and was quickly sent over to all you experts who hang out in the 'fostering' board.

I keep dreaming DH and I are foster carers.

I mentioned it to DH and he said "It could be a really nice thing for us to do. Is it something you would like to do then?"

"Yes, I think so." I replied.

"Then why not? I think we could be quite good at it." He added

We are not in a situation where we can do it straight away but it is an idea we are 'playing' with for the future.

Thoughts? Ideas? Advice?

TIA

Hi, we have been fostering for 7 years now. It is very rewarding and the the best thing I ever did. However, it is also very draining, heartbreaking, and frustrating. But for every difficult moment there is one that makes it all worthwhile.

The assessment process is very intrusive and can take a long time (ours was 18 months although it's not usually this long).

Have you thought about what age group you would like to do and long or short term. We do 0-8 boys and 0-18 girls. We have a 10 year old ds. We found that taking boys older than him didn't work, he was often bullied. We also have a 22 year old dd and a 3 year old dd that we fostered then adopted. We have 2 long term children with us age 5 and 7. Then we usually do short term placements for teenage girls as well.

Do you have your own dc and how old are they?. Most LAs like your youngest to be at least 2 before you foster.

I would advise you to contact your Local Authority and speak to someone. Then you can think about where to go from there.

Thanks Mumofloads!

That is really very interesting.

i would make an appointment to go along to your nearest fostering info evening. you are under no obligation but it will give you more insight into how it works.
contact your local social services and they will be able to tell you the details of the meeting.

they are very informative and as i say you are under no obligation.

can i ask (if its not too nosey) why you feel you cant foster yet?
please tell me to mind my own business!

It took us about 7 months from initial enquiry to registration at panel.
Fostering is totally rewarding.
Start the process now and by the time you're registered you may be in a position to foster straight away. If not you can let your social worker know when you are ready for your first placement.
Do consider your LA, they offer more choice of placements and it keeps costs down for LA if they can place children in house, so more children can be helped.