Why does it seem so odd to someone that single fathers can be great foster dads just as well as single mothers? There are men in this world that truly want to be fathers, even single ones, and make wonderful dads.

In Boston, Paul a single foster dad has become the dad to children that have fallen between the cracks and have been pushed away by other foster parents. He takes older children and only long term placements. He wants the children to have a sense of home and a place that they can return too.

He loads up his foster children and takes off for family summer adventures. (Yeah!!!) This has a great impact on the foster children, since they have most always been placed in respite care for family vacations. It takes away the stigma, “You are really are not part of the family.”

A statement from one of his foster children is below:

Having lost his mother to drugs, Dustin is building a bridge “to my real father,” he says. But he is quick to add: “Paul is the best foster dad I’ve ever had. All of us see him as a dad. He makes us feel like we are part of a family.”

Single men do have a lot to offer foster children, as seen above. It is more about the commitment to be a parent or foster parent. Foster children can benefit from a single parent home for a number of reasons. Some children have only been raised in a single parent home outside of foster care and this can be a huge adjustment for them. When children have suffered sexual abuse by a parent or parental figure, a single parent home may be the only way the foster child feels safe.

I have only had two foster children that came from a home with a father or father figure. So, foster dads and having a male role model are a little new for some of these children coming into care.

A former foster child has become a foster parent himself. Don is another single foster dad and also an adoptive dad. He started fostering and adopted a boy from the Colorado foster care system, then came his adoptive son’s biological brother and then a cousin. He is now a single dad to three adoptive children and one foster son.


More reading:

Are Foster Parents Doing It for the Money?

Public Concerned With Overall Foster Care System