Understanding that they may not necessarily feel very thankful even through they are safe and not being sexually abused, beaten, burned with cigarettes and just completely neglected. These foster children still have their own strong feelings about things and what is happening in their lives. While it may be hard to understand how a child would miss being in an abuse situation, it is still an emotion that they are feeling. Feelings that anyone has are not wrong, we all have the right to our own feelings.

We have a tradition in our family that when we sit down for Thanksgiving dinner after praying everyone shares what they are thankful for. I share this tradition with my foster children before hand and encourage them to share at least one thing that they are thankful. They can choose to be thankful for their biological parents or anything that they want.

I would never push a foster child to participate with our tradition when they act reluctant to share. To this point I have not had a foster child to not share something that they are thankful. I have been surprised with what they were thankful for (in a good way).

In my experience my foster children kind of felt left out in preparing and celebrating Thanksgiving. First reason I believe is that for most foster children this is a new experience with all the uncertainly that comes with new and different things. Second, is that they do not know how to become involved and be part of the experience. They see everyone else involved with preparing for the holiday and want to share in the experience. But they do not know how to involve themselves or join in the experience. This can lead to the child acting out or withdrawing during this time. In most cases it is up to the foster parent to show or set up chores and/or activities that will involve the foster children. I will be sharing ways and ideas to involve your foster children with the Thanksgiving holidays in a future post.

Do not forget to share why you became a foster parent and the chance of owning the new book “Forever Fingerprints”.

More Reading:

Foster Children and Holidays

Thanksgiving Holidays with Your Foster Children

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