A day in the life

[Catfriend]

hi I would really appreciate it if anyone could give me a quick reply of a typical day as a foster carer. I'm a single parent with an 11 year old daughter. I've started my F1 form and looking to foster children upto 8. I realise each day is different but just a little advice would be great.

Oh catfriend this made me smile cus it's a day in your life,, not someone ,else's. You're usually asked for a typical weekend, which gives you more scope. Maybe choose a weekend day and tell it just as t is - "On saturday mornings I get up around...... and my daughter gets up ......and we have breakfast (cooked or not) and maybe you do housework for a while and then maybe you and your daughter go shopping/swimming whatever and maybe you go to Pizza hut or DD has some friends over or goes to a sleep over. Maybe you watch a DVD in the evening or whatever. Just make it child friendly, so include some activities you do with DD.

I was a sw for many years and I remember one appct for fostring wrote that she got up at 5.00 am to do the ironing and this was her treat because the house was quiet and no one was making any demands of her - she had 4 kids!! We had many a laugh over this after approval, especially as I hate hate hate getting up in the morning and nothing would induce me out of bed at such an hour!

Hi NanaNina your comment made me laugh thanks for replying. I hope if I become a FC I won't be up at that time every morning!!

I haven't had much response does than mean everyone is very busy to reply??

Hi Catfriend

I'm guessing we've all been busy and it is quite hard to give you an idea of what a typical day fostering is like but here are a few ideas as to what you can expect.
One thing for sure is that there is never a dull moment and you need to be really good at thinking on your feet as plans and arrangements inevitably change at the last minute and you need to be prepared for this. The first few weeks of a placement are understandably the hardest, you will have a lot of meetings to attend and your fc will need a lot of support. We found routine to be key to pretty much everything as lac children frequently do not have routine in their often chaotic lives so you may well find that settling the child into as "normal" a pattern of everyday life as soon you possibly can to be the best way forward. Contact can be hard but then I expect you understand this and are prepared for it. Frequency of contact varies of course according to circumstances but my advice would be to try and ensure your own routines and plans that you put in place remain unchanged as much as possible.
Hope this helps a little and good luck with your approval, let us know how you get on.
C.x

Hi Catfriend.

I do not really have a typical day as we do teens and have frequent changes to plans! Here goes with a typical school day.....

Our day starts at 6.45am with attempting to turf reluctant teens out of their pit and into school uniform. We issue frequent reminders to clean teeth, remember homework due in, and eat breakfast but demands for money (bus fare or mufti) usually result in grabbing of a cereal bar and a dash for the door! Barring telephone calls from the school about foster teen's questionable behaviour (swearing, missing homework, skipping class) requiring us to go into school to meet with the teacher or bring foster teen home it is all quiet apart from the mountain of washing and ironing, shopping, cleaning and dog walking.
3pm after school there is the usual stampede for the fridge to top up food and drink intake. I can usually corner the f/teens in the kitchen to ask about any homework which is skillfully avoided. Foster teens, having re-fuelled, disappear to bedroom to play X-Box or out to visit friends until tea time. Several trips upstairs to remind foster teens to turn their music down as the whole street does not share their love of Katie Perry or Jessie J. A free workout without the expense of gym membership!
6pm is dinner time. Time to catch up on school letters, news etc. Best part of the day!
Various after school events back at the school or at local venues mean we revert to a taxi service on 3 nights per week.
9pm and foster teens hand in their social media equipment to us until the morning and settle down to a quiet read of a mag or book before sleep.

This is not always how it goes as we also have a lot of appointments to fit in for dentist, orthodontist, physio, LAC, PEP, school, SW visits and contact. All these appointments need you to be there in the background as a steadying hand on the helm when the foster teen needs some reassurance.

The best thing about fostering teens is the unexpected!! All you need is their fave food and for them to be the centre of your world really.