I’m a foster parent and yeah, there just isn’t anywhere for these kids to go. In any given state there are hundreds of kids who need a bed. The statistics for kids in the system are absolutely abismal. Something like 50% of kids in the system will end up with an addiction. It’s super rough to be a foster parent.
Statisticly, kids are better off in abusive homes than in the system. Which is something that once I learnt, has been a constant battle to try to square
Thank you for your service. I was friends with a foster kid and the situation at the foster home was fucked. One day for fun I went with a bunch of the foster kids to an out of the way parking lot, where they just beat the shit out of each other, fight club style.
His foster parents seemed like nice people, but the living situation was more like a fucked up dormitory where you got what you could through intimidation and violence.
What’s it like being a foster parent? Do you just have a kid randomly at your door? Do you do anything with them or just let them hang out in a separate room? Etc?
It’s rewarding but also very challenging. We take teens and teens sure know how to get in trouble. We only take one at a time and are currently taking a break cause we had two really challenging kids in a row and it took a toll on us.
So kids have a case worker and foster parents have a certification worker. Our certification worker basically does the work of presenting us with kids they think would be a good placement. If you have an available bed, you can bet your cert worker will be hitting you up often with “hey, we’ve got this kid in this situation, their history is blah”. Sometimes it can be an emergency, sometimes it can be something with some heads up. Since we are newer, we haven’t taken anyone in who is brand new to the system
Our approach is that we provide a family environment. We don’t have any kids of our own, so when someone comes in, we treat them as exactly we would if we were capable and did have our own. So like, we did have a kid for just the weekend the other week. We watched Frieren together, I took them to the arcade, we went for Boba, and took the dog to the dog park. This kid is coming from a foster parent who’s clearly just using kids as a paycheck. The money we get paid is supposed to go to taking care of the kid, and we make sure to do that since we do pretty well and don’t have to worry about much
I’m a foster parent and yeah, there just isn’t anywhere for these kids to go. In any given state there are hundreds of kids who need a bed. The statistics for kids in the system are absolutely abismal. Something like 50% of kids in the system will end up with an addiction. It’s super rough to be a foster parent.
Statisticly, kids are better off in abusive homes than in the system. Which is something that once I learnt, has been a constant battle to try to square
It’s all so tragic
Thank you for your service. I was friends with a foster kid and the situation at the foster home was fucked. One day for fun I went with a bunch of the foster kids to an out of the way parking lot, where they just beat the shit out of each other, fight club style.
His foster parents seemed like nice people, but the living situation was more like a fucked up dormitory where you got what you could through intimidation and violence.
DJ I hope you’re ok.
What’s it like being a foster parent? Do you just have a kid randomly at your door? Do you do anything with them or just let them hang out in a separate room? Etc?
It’s rewarding but also very challenging. We take teens and teens sure know how to get in trouble. We only take one at a time and are currently taking a break cause we had two really challenging kids in a row and it took a toll on us.
So kids have a case worker and foster parents have a certification worker. Our certification worker basically does the work of presenting us with kids they think would be a good placement. If you have an available bed, you can bet your cert worker will be hitting you up often with “hey, we’ve got this kid in this situation, their history is blah”. Sometimes it can be an emergency, sometimes it can be something with some heads up. Since we are newer, we haven’t taken anyone in who is brand new to the system
Our approach is that we provide a family environment. We don’t have any kids of our own, so when someone comes in, we treat them as exactly we would if we were capable and did have our own. So like, we did have a kid for just the weekend the other week. We watched Frieren together, I took them to the arcade, we went for Boba, and took the dog to the dog park. This kid is coming from a foster parent who’s clearly just using kids as a paycheck. The money we get paid is supposed to go to taking care of the kid, and we make sure to do that since we do pretty well and don’t have to worry about much