One difficult part of foster parenting is telling your foster children devastating and life changing news. I have been told by others that this is not my job that it should come from the caseworker or CASA worker. The reasoning behind this thought is that you as the foster mom will be “the bad guy”. This way they will not be mad at you and you can be the one that provides comfort.

In the beginning, I thought that made sense and would be helpful. After gaining some experience, you learn the reality of it. Some caseworkers do not want to be the bearer of bad news, so it is left up to the foster parents to handle. In time I realized that was not a bad thing.

Is it easier to hear... more

Short term foster care can be a few weeks to a few months. When they remove child to do a proper investigation of possible abuse, the children then would be placed in short term foster care. You do not see this wanted a lot, most investigations will take place in the home and the children then will only be removed if there is some form of abuse occurring in the home. In case where the children are removed first and the investigation follows, this tends to involve serious concerns were the death of a child may be present.

Another reason can be a parent is facing a crisis whether it be financial, health, other personal reasons, etc. and they do not have family or others to turn to... more

This type of foster care is not for everybody. You have to be willing and able to take placements at a moment's notice. For myself, someone that likes to have control of the situations this can be a challenge and something that you have to work through.

This can be exciting and pose obstacles for the foster family to overcome. You never know how many children you will wake up to find yourself mothering in just a few short hours. You will be working with a wide range of ages.

One of the challenges that you may face is being unprepared for an infant with formula, diapers, and all those other little baby things. Another challenge that I was faced with is having children already... more

Adult Foster Care: Delays, Mentally Retarded has been covered and now the last type of adult care.

Providing care for an elderly person is also part of adult foster care. This time of care is more like assisted living. This part of care does not include people that should be in a nursing home and that requires major care or health issues.

This is not as common in my area, so you do not hear a lot about this type of care. My uncle was placed in this type of care years ago. At that point, it was still fairly new and people did not understand it. My uncle did not like living... more

Adult foster care covers to different types of care and people, below you will find information on both types. Every state has very different requirements, paperwork and training.

One type of adult foster care is dealing with adults with developmentally delays, mental retardation (MR) or mentally ill. Some foster agencies that have only dealt with children in the past are getting involved with some adult foster care. Within the last two years, my agency has started dealing with this type of adult fostering.

I was approached by one of my friends with a mentally retarded daughter about... more

There are cases that children do not or most likely will not be adopted. In these cases, guardianship can be an option. Older foster children that do not want to be adopted, and want to have a stable home, then guardianship may be the best option.

The foster family must be willing to do long term care also. In some case the foster family has wanted to adopt the child but the child does not want to be adopted. Guardianship can be the answer for both parties. Parental rights do not have to be terminated, and they can still have rights for visitation in some cases.

For a foster child, this can keep her from living in the foster care system and moving from placement to... more

While most states have kinship foster care, the way they handle things is very different. They give varying levels of support to the families. Financial assistance, support and other resources have the greatest impact on kinship foster care.

Some states do offer financial assistance, subsidizing housing, educational funds, respite care, and other services. For the most part this is not a widely practiced thing. Some states offer different assistance on a case by case when it involves kinship. The major responsibility falls on the family member providing care.

Some states are realizing the need of kinship fostering... more

Kinship foster care is when the court makes a family member responsible for the care of a child that a child welfare agency has moved. The agency will look for a willing family member to care for the child before placing them in out of home foster placement. A lot of family members do not want to get involved with a family member losing their children, so this is not always an option for children coming into foster care.

In some states the court does not need to be involved if the child welfare agency decides that the kinship placement will be safe for the child. The family member may agree to care for the... more

I am always being asked why more foster parents do not want to care for infants or young toddlers. There is not an easy answer to this question. There are a number of reasons why a foster family may not take babies.

A number of babies in foster care are drug babies. Drug babies need more care and attention than other babies. You will have a number of sleepless nights while rocking a continuously crying baby. You may be faced with a baby that becomes stiff when you are holding her or has major muscle tremors both due to drugs. Fostering drug babies can be a major family commitment. We received a newborn infant... more

An agency is trying to lure foster parents to stay at home to care for babies that are in foster care in Palm Beach County. They are increasing the pay for infants to $27 per baby per day. The shelters in the local area are full with many little ones. 452 of these children that are living in shelters are 2 years old and younger.

Most families, even foster families, need a two parent income to make ends meet. Fostering younger children means the cost of daycare and just the bigger expense of younger children makes it harder to place these little ones. The private... more