There will be a few people that have no idea about foster care and the children that it involves. You may have to overcome some of the stigma of the negative of foster children (violent, rude, mean, crazy, killers, etc.). There will be some that think they are like children in their own families. Spend some time talking and explaining about some things that they may see and hearing with your foster children. I can promise you that whoever you spend time with will share some experiences of foster care with you.

What others need to know about foster children and understand. These children did not ask to be born, have the parents they have or to endure the abuse they suffered. These children do not understand what are why the abuse happened to them. Because of this these children will have additional problems to overcome and demons to face, to get beyond the abuse. So, these children will be not the typical children that people are use to interacting with.

You and the people around will be dealing with behaviors and children acting as you have not dealt with before. There may be times when people second guess or judge, the way you handle or parent your foster children. Truly for the most part they do not understand how you have to deal with things.

People do not need to know about the abuse or the details of a child’s life, to understand what is going on. That will be up to you to do as foster children in general.

The things you may learn about the child, their life and their family is very private information. You have this information to help this child heal and to deal with their past.

Yes, occasional you will have an incident that you have to talk with someone in more detail about the child. There may come a time when you have to give some details to explain a child’s severe behaviors, but this will need to be a case by case. This does not mean you need to state the child’s entire past just some basic to help the other person understand why the child did what they did.

I will talk about this in more detail and with my experiences in another posting.

For them to deal with their past or due to the abuse they have endured, they will need understanding, love and a lot of support form people around them.

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson