Reply to Fostering - give it to me straight

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I tried to foster as a single woman and I was told no because of my job. They told me there has to be one person (one parent in a two parent family or me in my case) who is available during the workday. They said you can have a job but it has to be very  flexible and family friendly. That you have to be able to go to the school when problems arise, take the child to appointments and biofamily visits, meet with the case worker etc. They also want a parent home the bulk of the time when the child isn't in school so one parent who works a short day. They basically said I would either have to work part time or have a very flexible work from home job that didn't really have set hours.[/quote]

Curious which jurisdiction this was in. Also curious,  Do foster parents have any say in when all of those appointments other posters have talked about  are scheduled? [/quote]

You have a little bit of say if you're the one making the appointment.  But just like any other doctor's appointment, you don't necessarily get your pick of times. There are rules and requirements about children in foster care seeing doctor and dentist very soon, and you might be dealing with a child who has never had any dental care, so there might be a lot of appointments.  Then of course there's everything that takes place at school (like, say, meeting with the child's teacher or special ed coordinator) and that's going to be during school hours most likely.  You may also have a child with behaviors, so the school will call you when a situation arises and expect you to show up on short notice if the child cannot return to class.  Also some children in foster care have medical conditions that need to be dealt with, just like any other child may have an illness or condition.

There will also be court, which you may or may not be required or want to attend, and you don't get to pick the time for that, the judge does.  Also visitation with one or both bio parents and with extended family, which you may or may not be required to supervise.  And caseworker meetings and home visits.  You might get some input into time and location, but it's not like you get to just pick what you want and everyone else has to accept it.  So it really, really adds up to a lot of time during the work day.  Add that to the OP's other three kids living their kid lives with doctor appointments and parent-teacher conferences and getting pinkeye and everything else that might cause a parent to miss work, and it's a lot.[/quote]

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