Many people ask, “Why do we need foster families?” We need foster families that will provide a home for children in need, with stability, compassion, and understanding for an underdetermined amount of time. Foster families are unlike any other family dynamic. A foster parent, or parents, must first and foremost, be selfless. Providing a home for children in foster care will take a lot of positive energy and self-sacrifice. Routines will need to change, behavioral management strategies will have to adapt, and even the food you prepare for meals may need to be amended to accommodate your foster child(ren). While this sounds overwhelming, it is in fact, not the case.
Providing foster care can fill your heart and mind in ways you never imagined! Watching these children adapt, thrive, and prosper in your care is rewarding on a level unlike any other. Think back to those potentially overwhelming things listed in the previous paragraph. Each of those is an opportunity for you to grow as a person.
- As you learn to change your personal routines, to work with the needs of a newly placed child, you become more adaptable. Soon enough, it becomes like second nature. Not everyone can change so easily.
- You will also acquire new skill sets when helping children placed with you handle their feelings. Through personal development and learning, you will learn new strategies for helping children deal with attachment, trust, socialization, and loss to name a few. This will take time and dedication on your part. Again, this is not something that everyone is capable of doing with fidelity.
- Changing your dietary routine is probably the easiest to handle and the most fun in my opinion. The children placed in your care could come from a multitude of cultural backgrounds. One of the easiest things you can do to help them acclimate to their new home is to feed them something they are familiar with. This can open you up to a world of flavor that you never knew existed.
We need foster families that are adaptable. Not everyone is capable of changing their personal routines and preferences as easily as others. This makes finding families, who will open their homes and their hearts, increasingly difficult, but not impossible. We know you are out there and there are children who would love to meet you! If you feel that you can help a child(ren) please visit our website by clicking here or contact us for more information.
