Having a family is one of the most blissful experiences in life. The feeling of togetherness, the safety belt and the shared sense of belonging! The family is where a child learns his first lessons and a lifetime full of lessons that help him grow into a good human being. A healthy childhood results in responsible caring adults and good citizens of the society.
Ensuring that their childhood stays a pleasant experience is an integral factor in their growth. Unfortunately, there are children who have to be separated from their biological family due to toxic situations. If the parents are deemed unfit to raise a child or are convicted, the state takes responsibility for the child and hands them over to a social service agency. The agency places each child into a home they may fit into, or their foster homes.
Why become a foster parent?
Here they are given a second chance at family, without the painful experiences or unfit living conditions. They are given love, care, and compassion by their foster parents and as the result of which, they grow as the healthy children they deserve to be. Foster parents are people who have the facilities and the mindset to take in children who are in need.
You can be an elderly couple, whose children have moved away, or a young couple who are keen on adoption, and simply a person who can love children and keep them in her home. Foster parents need not be married or rich. It is a common misperception that only the rich and settled can turn into foster parents. Any interested individual or couple who have the basic facilities to provide space to a child can become a foster parent.
How to become a foster parent?
To become a foster parent, all you have to do is enroll as one. The state verifies your financial records as well as examines your criminal record if any. This is to ensure that you are fit to be foster parents and take good care of your foster child. There is an increasing need of volunteers for fostering and homes for children in need.
Tahir Khan, founder of Perpetual Fostering, says that there are so many children that need a good foster home but have nowhere to go due to lack of foster carers. Foster caring can be seen as a career as well. It is the one job that gives complete job satisfaction, and happiness.
The finance regarding foster care
Foster caring is a rather rewarding experience both career-wise as well as for your personality. This gives you an opportunity to develop as a parent and as an individual when you take efforts to understand and support a little human being. The financial aspect of foster care is taken care of by the agency and government.
Children who are placed in foster homes usually have troubled memories and difficulties adjusting. It is integral to get them involved in hobbies and past-times of their choice to get them distracted. Entertaining a hobby will cost finances and this is why the state provided allowance is a boon. You will be able to provide the best within your capability for the child.
There are payments in two stages, allowance and rewards. Children have a lot of needs and they will require funding. Be it for food, clothes or hobbies, finances need to be invested for them. The government provides a fixed amount of money for each child’s needs, to the foster parent. This payment is weekly and varies from region to region.
The second part of the payment is in the form of rewards. This is an amount that is similar to the salary and is given based on your experience as a foster carer. The reward amount is dependent on the facilities you can provide, the size and location of the home, how many years you have been fostering for and the number of kids under your roof. These rewards act as an added motivation for you to be a better carer and provide the best for the children in your care.
In special cases, there can be needs such as siblings to be fostered together, or even mother and baby. These cases are funded more and rewarded for. Some children may also come with special needs. Their care can get more expensive and hence funding is duly increased as well.
The experience of being a foster carer
Foster carers are more than parents. They step up into parental shoes for the sake of a child in need. They provide and care for that child and love him unconditionally. It is necessary for foster carers to develop an emotional attachment to the child so that they can form a bond and share things. However, it is also necessary to know that foster caring is temporary and ultimately the child will be removed from the safety of your home. In most cases, blood relatives are sought out and the child is handed over. In some cases, the child can never be reunited with the biological parents. In this scenario, there is an option available for adoption to the foster parents. The ties with the parents have to be severed before the adoption process is possible. In most cases, the fostering period lasts from a few months to a few years.
Evolving as a foster carer
As time passes by, you will be exposed to more children or would have seen your foster children grow into better versions of themselves. Parenting lets you evolve as a person and fostering helps you do that. When you care for innocent minds and see their joy at the little things, you will be able to see life from a different perspective. Fostering is a rather rewarding experience in this aspect.
The agency or social services that allocate the children to you also assign a caseworker. This person, as well as the agency, will provide support throughout the fostering period for any guidance you may require. Fostering is an experience like no other and you would be doing a service to the society by raising responsible and healthy children.