subject: The Rewards And Challenges Of Foster Care [print this page] The Rewards And Challenges Of Foster Care
For a number of reasons, some children and young adults cannot be looked after by their own parents and need to find the support elsewhere. Thankfully, there is a lot of information, advice and guidance available today which can help families decide if fostering a child is for them or not. As the name suggests, a fostering family is simply a family that opens their door and their lives to a child or children in need of support, and then help that child develop to be all they can be.
However not everyone is cut out to be a foster carer, as the challenges that inherently come with it require a stable home environment, a caring nature and a lot of understanding. Thankfully the rewards can often heavily outweigh any issues. Whether a family fosters one child or several children, the choice will undoubtedly affect their lives greatly, so it's important to consider everything before making the decision. The most obvious reward is the feeling of helping someone when their family has not been able to, for any number of reasons. This comes with the responsibility of nurturing that child's growth and helping them reach their full potential through supporting their choices, imparting your own experience and education and providing a solid home life and family network.
Like raising any child though, there are many challenges that face foster carers. For a family with children already, the primary consideration is how will the children react to a new face in their family? It is important that fostering families discuss in depth the situation and consider the impact a looked after child or young person may have on their own children's feelings and home life. Unfortunately, this can bring with unexpected behaviour from children who foster, as they react to the change in their lives. The flipside of this is of course that acting as a fostering family can bring any family closer together, through showing compassion and generosity. Older children who foster generally react well to welcoming a child or young adult into their lives and the act itself helps teach valuable lessons to children of all ages.
Many looked after children and young people only need a new home for a very short amount of time as their own domestic situation is not safe for whatever reason. In cases like this, it can be hard for a fostering family to say goodbye to the child or children they may have been looking after for months or years even.
If you can find space in your life to provide support to a child that needs it, then fostering could be for you. Like looking after any child though, it requires time, commitment, patience and the ability to show love where others sometimes can't, and this is what makes fostering such a rewarding and fulfilling choice.
