One of the messages promoted in the fostering industry is that anyone with a big heart and space in their home can foster, but unfortunately foster carers need a bit more than that. They need to be resilient, patient, and interested in working with children among other things, but for those of you interested in learning more about fostering, we have got our foster carers to share their experience to help build an honest, unbiased view of what it’s like to be a foster carer including both the positives and the challenges.
What is your name and how long have you fostered?
Vallie: “My name’s Vallie”
Peter: “My name is Peter”
Vallie: “And we’ve been fostering for about 12 years”
Peter: “We have two teenage half-brothers, one's 16, one's coming up 18. We have a staying-put, who's 23”
(A staying-put placement is when a child in care turns 18 and continues to stay with their carers even after ceasing to be a Looked After Child)
Why did you choose to foster?
Peter: “Originally, you (Vallie) didn't like the job you had and you thought if we fostered, you could be at home all the time. And we had plenty to give, we could afford it, I was close to retirement, although I was working at the time we first started.”
Vallie: “We've only got one son, and we did look into adopting when he was about five, and he got to the point where he said ‘no, I don't think I can do that’. We decided perhaps we'd have a go at fostering.”
What is the best part about being a foster carer?
Peter: “I guess helping to shape some youngsters into a decent life and the fact we get quite a lot of pleasure out of it. It's nice having young people around, especially at our age.”
Vallie: “I love cooking, so there's always someone to feed. And I think we're both very proud of how our foster daughter turned out, she's very level-headed.”
Peter: “[She’s] very self-sufficient, very confident. [She] wasn’t always when she first came.”
Vallie: “There was a point where they were going to put her into a children's home.”
Peter: “We managed to get over that and now she turned out fine and that is very satisfying.”
There is a variety of reasons children enter care, however, in almost every case the child will need time to help process and potentially heal from their experience. Helping them overcome their challenges is never going to be an easy task but it is possible, rewarding and satisfying on a level very few other careers are able to provide as shown by Vallie and Peter, who we want to say a big thank you to for sharing part of their fostering experience.
If you have any further questions about fostering send us a message and we will be happy to give you more information.
We are planning to run coffee morning at our agency which you can turn up to for free and have a zero-commitment chat with us and other people interested in fostering!
Hosted at 67 College Road, ME15 6SX, The dates are:
14th March at 10:00 am to 12:00 pm
27th April at 10:00 am to 12:00 pm
