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Would foster children be better off left with their biological parents, or other situations that they are removed from, than being placed into foster care? This is a question that everyone hears time to time and one that I have been asked as a foster parent.
I am sure that there are a few cases when children have been removed where the biological parents could have possibly received services to address the concerns. For the most part, when foster children are removed there is a just reason for it.
Any child living with a drug addicted biological parent is at great risk. Why? Oh….where do I begin? It affects everything. Let’s start from the beginning; pregnancy. Drug addiction continuing through the pregnancy leaves a children struggling with issues for possibly a lifetime. Depending on what type of drugs children living in a place where drugs are been done, or made can also be ingesting the same drugs their biological parents are doing. Drug using also affects a persons judgment and decision making ability. It is also common for children that are in these type of atmospheres where drugs are present are more likely to endure sexual abuse. When biological parents are high they are unable to care for their children, leaving them unattended.. A huge number of cases in the foster care system revolve around drugs or play some part in it.
A number of foster children have lived with sexual abuse and some have endured it for years. Does a biological father have the right to rape his daughter and then allow his friends to rape her not once or twice but for years? Is this really something a children should have to live with every day?
Children are living with abuse on a daily basis, or just when their biological parents have a bad day. Children are burnt with cigarettes, locked in rooms, starved, left unattended sometimes for days at a time, and some children are beaten to the point of broken bones and some cases even death. This is their lives.
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How could staying in these situations be the right thing for the children?
Would you leave you children in the care of someone that was a drug addict?
Would you allow your children or sister to be repeatedly raped time and time again?
Would you let a babysitter lock your child in a room or burn them with cigarettes?
My answer to the question is without a doubt, in most situations it is best to protect the children by removing them.
My question in response is: Is this about what is best for the foster children, or more about everyone else’s (meaning the public) feelings?
More reading:
How Often Do Foster Children Come Back Into Care?
Struggling With The Foster Care System
I would have to agree with you about there being a just reason for a child being removed from their biological family. I know because I am one of those children. Wow, it sucks not knowing who my biological parents are, or even all of my siblings, i am trying to learn who they are and find them. One thing is though, that at least in the state of Michigan, they try to get the parents to take a parenting class if there is a problem. They try a few times to get the family the help that they need. If that doesnt work, and the family won’t comply with the requests to make the family better and safe for the children they take them away. In my case my biological parents were abusive, not just to us kids, but also to eachother. Seriously… it is better to be in foster care (depending) and waiting to be adopted then to be beaten every day.