At the end of the school year, kids can be brimming with excitement – their thoughts wandering towards summer break as they sign each other’s yearbooks and daydream about their newfound freedom. The assignments and projects and homework has piled on for months, and it’s suddenly gone! For some, there are lots of exciting activities […]
Grounded. That’s a word I became very familiar with in high school. No, I don’t mean grounded as in “realistic” – I mean grounded as in punished, sent to my room, cut off from friends or from my computer. I wasn’t a bad kid, really, but there were certain rules I was bad at following. […]
Sometimes our day to day activities can feel like too much. From packing lunches to dropping the kids off at school to arriving at work on time, it often seems as though there isn’t a moment to breathe. But it’s when we have the least amount of time to pause that this pause matters the […]
Explaining to your family and friends what foster care is and why you want to open your home to a child can be both challenging and intimidating. You’re never sure how open they’ll be to your plan, what kind of support they’ll offer or what “horror story” they’ll tell you from someone they know who […]
After welcoming your foster son into your home, you noticed he seemed unreceptive to every attempt you made to form a connection with him. At first you probably thought, “Maybe he’s afraid of strangers.” As time goes by and his disposition doesn’t change, concern or even fear may lead to you discovering reactive attachment disorder […]
Trying to understand what a child is thinking can be difficult. Without the ability to express themselves, or if past trauma has affected their ability to do so, handling grief and trauma can become a major obstacle for foster parents. Whether it’s attachment issues, stubbornness, or acting out, behaviors you experience with foster children may […]
With the hustle and bustle of the school year coming to a close, you’ve probably started wondering what you’ll do now that your foster child’s day isn’t filled with school, practices and homework. The possibilities are endless and vary widely from one child to the next. After seeing all of the possible summer activities for […]
Welcoming your foster child into your home isn’t going to be as easy as simply opening your door. You need to treat him like any other child but also consider the trauma he’s experienced. Your foster child may immediately embrace you, it may take time for him to warm up or he may never show […]
Foster parents have to cope with a lot of unique situations, whether they’re dealing with medically fragile children or navigating the complexities of finding a state-approved babysitter. Sometimes, we all need the experience and wisdom of someone who’s been there before – that’s why it’s important to network with as many foster care organizations and […]
When you don’t know where your next meal is coming from, it’s understandable that you would try to save every morsel. For thousands of children throughout the country, food is as fleeting as the time it takes to chew and swallow. Unfortunately, food hoarding in foster children is an all too common practice. By human […]