Fostering when you have your own children

[HelloGoodbye86]

Sorry to keep posting but the more I look into fostering the more questions I seem to come up with. I recently found an old thread that was discussing foster carers transporting foster children to and from school and the majority of people said that they did this, my worry would be that my own children are / will be school age by the time we apply (and fingers crossed get approved) so I will be doing the school run for them so unless they went to the same school which I imagine would be unlikely, how would I be expected to manage this? is anyone currently in a similar situation, what is your experience of this? Thanks :) x

I fostered while our own 4 children were still in school - though as 2 had disabilities they were transported by taxi to their special school.

We were expected to transport the foster children, yes. We do now - over 200 miles a week (sounds a lot but 20 miles a round trip) transport all foster children to their various schools. At the moment it works out because the schools are all in the same town. There have been occasions where it is simply not possible to be in the same place at the same time so cannot transport. For children in respite with us the LA usually (after much moaning) do supply transport. For children with us for a longer period of time it is discussed at the time. On occasion children have moved schools, on others we have only been able to take the placement if transport is provided, and on other occasions have left at the crack of dawn each day to make sure everyone arrives where they should be on time. We have often had to ask the school to look after the foster child for a short period after school so we can fit everyone in. Much depends on the SW. Some are quite down to earth and helpful, others expect us to perform miracles. I have found it is best to mention it as soon as possible to the SW.

We have three children of our own 4/5/7 we foster pre school children for this reason x

We have 3 children aged 4/5/7 and only foster pre school aged children for that reason x

I would only foster children a LOT younger than mine. For many reasons .

My child is primary aged and I have had to juggle school runs at opposite ends of the city. Current child and previous one i had both attended breakfast club at their school, I booked them in myself as was the only way I could manage. Social workers were fine with this as long as they were picked up at normal time end of the day.

I had to get family to collect my daughter from school originally, but now she is old enough to walk each way but I still have to rush home to meet her there. It is difficult but doable but i leave house at 7:30 in morning to get them all to school with a baby tow, so it's tiring. Then after school I have to take my child in the car with me when we go back and forth to contact so she doesn't get to relax at home or start her homework until after dinner. She doesn't mind too much, would obviously rather not but knows we just have to. All things to think about, good luck.

The la will sort taxis or sometimes the fostering agency will help
Out for a bit.

Agree with pp though you need to consider children in a different age group to yours again for lots reasons. I will be fostering when my dds are well in to secondary school but younger children.

My kids are 8/10 and we only foster under 2's for this and other reasons.

Thanks for the replies, my kids are only 3 (4 in a couple of months) and 1 so maybe it will be better waiting till they are older, my youngest would have been 2 by the time we apply but maybe that's still abit too young? x

What age group would you be looking at fostering then? As my LA will only let you foster children younger than your own and with a two year age gap. They want your own children to keep their birth order in the family i.e. The eldest stays the eldest etc.
I would also find it hard to see my child be treated badly by older children or exposed to inappropriate behaviours that they were too young to understand and deal with. My child finds it hard enough at 10 dealing with a lot the the behaviour and that's with little ones. Good luck though, I remember how overwhelming it was when I was thinking about doing it so best thing to do is to ask as much as you can now.

My kids are 6 and almost 4. We have our first annual review today. We will only take pre-school aged children. Would prefer newborns but not very many coming into care these days. I also home educate my two so don't have to worry about school run clashes :D

Candycoco I was thinking pre school so maybe I would be better waiting a bit longer. I don't really know how long the assessment process is or anything xx