fostering with 4 birth children

[user1466693515]

I am about to go to panel with Capstone fostering agency and I have four children between 3 and 16. Am I crazy? I fostered before with the local authority when I had three kids but now Im (HOPEFULLY ) going to be approved for 3 or less siblings for long term. I absolutely love being a mum and my husband is a child psychologist and I have worked with special needs children for 21 years so I'm hoping this will help. Is anyone else in the same ish situation?

I don't think you're crazy. If you've got the room and the love to spare then by all means go for it, I take my hat off to anyone who could do that.

Just make sure that you've got enough support in place, can imagine it's possibly hectic with 4 without adding more into the mix. Make sure to take time for yourself and your husband too.

Best of luck

i'm very lucky to have lots of support. I have my mum who used to be a foster carer, my husbands parents, my dad and stepmum, my very helpful ex husband and my work colleagues who are mostly therapists who work with children with attachment difficulties. I plan to give up work though as I think seven kids is enough to keep me occupied. We only have two extra bedrooms but sw seems to think the rooms are big enough to share (Didnt think that was allowed)

In our authority siblings can share. I did something similar to what you're describing. Best thing I ever did.

It sounds as though you've great support in place and can offer children a good loving supportive family environment, I honestly say go for it. You'll be doing something so amazing and from what I've read on mn it'll be an amazing experience. I've no personal experience of fostering myself but I've been interested in finding more out about it, and reading the boards here are a great eye opener.

Though you've said you've done this before so I'm sure you're well prepared for it and I'm sorry if I've sounded patronising in that case

I don't think you're mad at all. I know several large foster/birth families and it's chaotic and stressful at times and fantastic at others. Likewise, sometimes it can be just as stressful having only one child as the attention is solely focused on them.

Good luck at panel!

Thanks guys. Went to my therapeutic parenting training today and now feeling so excited about everything

Good luck, you have a scary and exciting time ahead. You sound well prepared.

We have four aged between 2 and 15 and are currently fostering a sibling group of 3. Love the busy organised chaos that is our home

That's great fly high thank you x

Foster carers who have big families are much better at dealing with stresses, group politics and multitasking, in my opinion.

We have just started making enquirers into fostering, we have four birth children between 20 and 2 (crazy I know) great to know there are others out there! I kind of think once you get to a certain level of craziness what's one or two more in the mix!? 😂😂

Just been to another training session and met a lady in the same sort of situation as me . She told me that having a sibling group along with a large family worked well for her as there was always someone to support and positive role model. Thank you so much for the replies, feeling very excited and impatient to start