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 dealing with pregnant foster teens and teen mothers in foster care. With the increase of pregnancies in foster care more foster parents are likely to find themselves in this situation.

Your main goal and job in fostering a teen mother is teaching her parenting and life skills, so one day she can parent independently. This leaves the foster parents with a huge responsibility without the help and support of the child welfare department. It can easily leave the foster parent not knowing what is helping and what is enabling a teen mother.

You as the foster parents will end up being the bad guy more often than not because teaching responsibility comes at the sacrifice of the teen mom’s desires. The reality is that these teen moms will age out of the system with their babies or in some cases, toddlers. This means that the foster parents must teach these teen mothers to stand on their own two feet to be a successful parent to their children. We must teach them much more than just parenting. Life skills, money management, job skills, how to find resources, etc are skills that you will also need to address so the teen mom can be an independent mom in the future.


More reading:

Pregnant Teenage Foster Children

Foster Teen Mothers' Right to Parent

Foster Teen Mothers' Right to Parent Concerns

Foster Children and Birth Control