They find themselves having to grow up overnight and becoming a parent while their peers are still experiencing their teen years. This is part of being a teen parent. They have so much growing up to do in a short time and so much to learn.

Learning household responsibilities is a very important step in this process. Learning how to cook will be a necessity since they will most likely not have the extra monies for fast food and eating out. Along with cooking comes, food safety (how long to keep food before it ruins, how long to cook things, cleaning and preparing food), shopping while staying on a budget, cleaning, etc. Learning how to do laundry and other household cleaning... more

Can being a built in free daycare when the mom has to go to school or built in babysitter when she wants to go out, teach the teen mom responsibilities? Are does it give her the idea that someone is always around to take up the slack or that this is how it will be when she is on her own?

A foster parent should not be providing child care for the teen mom without the teen mom having any responsibilities for this arrangement. If the teen mom works she should be paying for the care of her baby. The amount can be $10-$20 a month for child care. It is not about the amount but the... more

Foster Parents Parenting Pregnant Teens or Teen Moms

Yes, these teen girls are still teens but with adult responsibilities that they have to learn to accept to be a parent to their children. I do understand that there is a part of us (foster parents) that see these teens as just that, and feel they need to be allowed to be teens. The teen mom has decided that she wants to parent her child. Her being and doing teen things need to come after her parenting responsibilities. This... more

Foster parenting pregnant teens can be challenging. It is left totally up to the foster parents to find their way in parenting a teen mother. Finding resources for these young teen mothers can be a nightmare. Personally I do not think the weight of all of this should fall on the foster parents but that is how the system works now.

I have been asked how to help parents, foster teen mothers. There are not across the board answers for every situation but I will try to give some thoughts and ideas in this type of foster parenting. This will be a series to address foster parents... more

Foster Teen Mothers' Right to Parent

One of the major problems I have with this is that I personally wonder if the typical foster home provides the desperately needed support and time for a foster teen mother to have a chance to parent her infant. These foster teens are dealing with all the normal stuff abused and neglected children are feeling in addition to being pregnant.

These teens still have to deal with the reason that placed them into foster care which takes time. Most... more

Are foster teen mothers not being given the chance to be a mother to their own children? With teen pregnancy on the rise in the foster care system this is something that needs to be addressed. In Kentucky they are dealing with a terrible mess where foster teen mothers have lost the rights to the children possibly for being inexperienced and in foster care.

Teen mothers are being separated from their infants while in foster care with the mothers in one foster home and infants placed in a different foster home.... more

The Forgotten Foster Children

Adoption through foster care can be time consuming and workers seem unprepared. There is not someone to guide an adoptive parent through the process and tell them what kinds of questions to ask or how to receive services such as college paid for, full medical coverage, and monthly subsidies. Making the public aware of these services could open a lot of doors so that older foster children could be adopted. It can be overwhelming to a... more

Older foster children are being abandoned by society and the foster care system. Their parental rights are being terminated and then being left orphans to age out of foster care. There are some very damaged foster teens that are facing severe struggles in their daily lives which can be difficult to parent. Then there are foster teens and older children that do not have major issues and could quite easily fit into a family if given a chance at adoption. We have to remember not all foster children have major behaviors, disorders, and need the seasoned parents.... more

Foster children that are illegal immigrants are leaving the system without checking into the possibility of receiving their green cards. Then they become adults with a limited future. By not having legal status they will face problems with education, employment concerns, along with being deported.

Some neglected, abandoned and abused foster children are eligible for legal residency under federal law. They have to be dependents of the state, under the age of 21 and unmarried. Not every child that applies will receive their green card. Any national can apply. The children could have been brought to the United... more

This can be one of those topics that we might want to side step for any number of reasons. One of the big questions and debates is who is responsible for providing foster children with sex education. Some biological parents do not feel that it is the place of Child Welfare or the foster parents to provide this information to the children. Some Child Welfare caseworkers refuse to help foster children in their care to get birth control.

"A DCF worker finally agreed to take a girl to a clinic after a Leon County judge ''browbeat'' the caseworker into changing course. In a second case, one of the clinic's students... more