When people who do not regularly come over, are coming to your home it can make you feel apprehensive about what they will think. Especially when they show up unannounced and your house looks like a tornado just went through. If you have children, people should expect to see toys on the floor. They also expect to see that the house is lived in and the inhabitants have fun. An experienced social worker would probably be suspicious to find your home immaculate if young children live in it already. It can make you seem fake, and may cause the social worker to wonder what else you are faking or hiding. Do not misunderstand me, I am not suggesting that you leave or make your house filthy.
I am suggesting that you be real. Clean your house as you usually do. For example, once a day we sweep and mop, run the vacuum, clean the bathrooms, take out the trash, clean the kitchen, and do the dishes. We usually do our household chores from 1pm until around 2pm. Sometimes, by 5pm the house is a mess again and definitely by the next morning. Would I run around trying to straighten the house if a caseworker is coming over early? I would probably put all of the dishes in the sink and pick up the dirty clothes off from the floor. If there were a lot of food on the kitchen floor, I would sweep most of it up. If the caseworker looks around, I might mention that job time isn’t until 1pm. We have other things to do than waste our lives keeping the house spotless.
The house is disinfected everyday and the children rarely get ill so it must be working for us. If it were our annual licensing inspection, I would probably ask the children to do their chores early. However, there would still be some clutter and a lot of stuff. Right now, we have nine people living in our house. That is the least number of people who have lived her in many years. Seven are children so as you can imagine we have many toys, books, and games. I also babysit for my two granddaughters three days a week. That gives us three children who are two and younger. If the caseworker didn’t see some messes, she should probably investigate.
Just as when completing your homestudy and family profile, you need to be real. You are more likely to receive calls for children who fit into your family, if the caseworkers know who you really are.
Related article:
Trying to Sell Your Family When You Want to Be Chosen for Adoption
Photo Credit: 2008 Julia Fuller.
Julia, I want to become a foster parent but I am not sure what the requirements will be here in Arizona. I am a 57 year old nurse in a rural area and was just laid off this week. I will be filing personal bankruptcy soon. I was never able to become pregnant and my ex-husband had 2 children from a prior marriage and would not even think of fostering. I have a large home on acreage and since my divorce I have been working on my home to finish what my husband and I had started. I am still doing trim work, painting, etc.. Being a nurse is no longer fulfulling for me because I am tired of seeing people getting poor care because the facilities are focused on the mighty dollar. When I was asked by my niece as to what I wanted to do, I immediately said that I wanted to foster children. What kind of chance do I have going through bankruptcy and no job for the last 4 days? I still have a big heart, home and desire to love and comfort.
I live in California and I’m always worried when a social worker comes over to the house. My house has never been perfect and never will be. But it worries me that they might think that my house is to messy and take the kids away. Right now I have 4 kids and that is all I want. 2 we are going to be adopting but the other 2 we don’t know yet. But all my kids are under the age of 6 and so its hard to have them help out. I can get the 6 year old to help but that is it the others are to little.
Hi, I have been a foster mom for almost 2 years now. I fell in love with my first foster daughter and have adopted her. I currently have an additional foster daughter. I have found this experience to be so rewarding. I now want to finish my basement to allow in more childern. I had a rep. out for an estimate, and he says there are govt. subsidies that are available to help with the cost. Since I’ve found the cost are way out of my price range, do you know where I might find out info on this???