Not OP, but you can check out Wednesday's Child to see foster kids who need foster homes. Very heartbreaking to see so many kids needing a place to call home. I hope one day I can become a foster parent, preferably to an older child. Once the older kids age out of foster care, they have nothing. A very sad situation that these children were born into to no fault of their own.

OP, I have two questions.
In DC, how do you become a foster parent?
Can you decide the age group of the foster child?

Anonymous wrote:I'm not clear about how the money given to foster parents to help with costs works. I've heard about children staying just one or two nights with one foster parent before going on to another. How does that work?

I'm also not sure if the amounts in the link you provided are monthly or annually?

And have you ever had foster children who stayed just a few nights?

Monthly

I'm not clear about how the money given to foster parents to help with costs works. I've heard about children staying just one or two nights with one foster parent before going on to another. How does that work?

I'm also not sure if the amounts in the link you provided are monthly or annually?

And have you ever had foster children who stayed just a few nights?

Have you ever felt threatened by any of your foster children? I've thought about fostering, but we have small children and I worry that some children coming from a very disturbed environment could act out in a violent way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I call BD on you, OP. you're focused on kids eating veggies and breaking toys. Anyone who's been in foster care or fostered kids knows how heavy this is emotionally. Most kids in foster care have experienced a lot of abuse. You're not dealing with those everyday parenting issues

Simmer down. I gave examples that the majority of people here would understand. Dh and I focus on many different things with foster kids - from yes, eating vegetables, to anger management, to self-care, to learning how to behave at a birthday party where none of the adults get drunk or threaten people with guns.

Not all kids in foster care have experienced a ton of abuse, btw. We've had several children who have come from single-parent homes where the parent has died or disappeared, but before that the child was showing up in school daily, eating decently, and going about a mostly normal childhood. Not all foster kids have been beaten and abused and come from poverty.

Yeah...sure. Cause kids in foster care have only been to birthday parties in the hood

Why the hostility toward the foster mom? If you are the same poster, and I suspect that you are, you've been needlessly hostile.
Clearly you have a chip on your shoulder about this issue or you're trolling.
If it's the former, spit it out. What's the deal? If it's the latter, go away.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I call BD on you, OP. you're focused on kids eating veggies and breaking toys. Anyone who's been in foster care or fostered kids knows how heavy this is emotionally. Most kids in foster care have experienced a lot of abuse. You're not dealing with those everyday parenting issues

Simmer down. I gave examples that the majority of people here would understand. Dh and I focus on many different things with foster kids - from yes, eating vegetables, to anger management, to self-care, to learning how to behave at a birthday party where none of the adults get drunk or threaten people with guns.

Not all kids in foster care have experienced a ton of abuse, btw. We've had several children who have come from single-parent homes where the parent has died or disappeared, but before that the child was showing up in school daily, eating decently, and going about a mostly normal childhood. Not all foster kids have been beaten and abused and come from poverty.

Yeah...sure. Cause kids in foster care have only been to birthday parties in the hood

What is your problem? I have been to countless parties not in the "hood" where adults get drunk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I call BD on you, OP. you're focused on kids eating veggies and breaking toys. Anyone who's been in foster care or fostered kids knows how heavy this is emotionally. Most kids in foster care have experienced a lot of abuse. You're not dealing with those everyday parenting issues

Dealing with or answering in a way that responds to those issues. Surely she deals with them. However, she hasn't addressed how dealing with these issues affects her biological children.
I too would like to know this OP as we're considering fostering younger children when our biological children are in high school and head off to college.

Sorry. Meant to phrase first sentence as a rhetorical question.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I call BD on you, OP. you're focused on kids eating veggies and breaking toys. Anyone who's been in foster care or fostered kids knows how heavy this is emotionally. Most kids in foster care have experienced a lot of abuse. You're not dealing with those everyday parenting issues

Simmer down. I gave examples that the majority of people here would understand. Dh and I focus on many different things with foster kids - from yes, eating vegetables, to anger management, to self-care, to learning how to behave at a birthday party where none of the adults get drunk or threaten people with guns.

Not all kids in foster care have experienced a ton of abuse, btw. We've had several children who have come from single-parent homes where the parent has died or disappeared, but before that the child was showing up in school daily, eating decently, and going about a mostly normal childhood. Not all foster kids have been beaten and abused and come from poverty.

Yeah...sure. Cause kids in foster care have only been to birthday parties in the hood

Anonymous wrote:I call BD on you, OP. you're focused on kids eating veggies and breaking toys. Anyone who's been in foster care or fostered kids knows how heavy this is emotionally. Most kids in foster care have experienced a lot of abuse. You're not dealing with those everyday parenting issues

Dealing with or answering in a way that responds to those issues. Surely she deals with them. However, she hasn't addressed how dealing with these issues affects her biological children.
I too would like to know this OP as we're considering fostering younger children when our biological children are in high school and head off to college.

Anonymous wrote:I call BD on you, OP. you're focused on kids eating veggies and breaking toys. Anyone who's been in foster care or fostered kids knows how heavy this is emotionally. Most kids in foster care have experienced a lot of abuse. You're not dealing with those everyday parenting issues

Simmer down. I gave examples that the majority of people here would understand. Dh and I focus on many different things with foster kids - from yes, eating vegetables, to anger management, to self-care, to learning how to behave at a birthday party where none of the adults get drunk or threaten people with guns.

Not all kids in foster care have experienced a ton of abuse, btw. We've had several children who have come from single-parent homes where the parent has died or disappeared, but before that the child was showing up in school daily, eating decently, and going about a mostly normal childhood. Not all foster kids have been beaten and abused and come from poverty.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much money are you paid?

First, I just want to make sure you know it's offensive to phrase it like that.
Here is a chart breaking it down state by state. http://peeples.hubpages.com/hub/What-does-being-a-foster-parent-really-pay

Keep in mind though, that children with disabilities often require more intense care and foster parents are given more money for caring for them.

Noted & intentioned.


D.C. $827 x 3 = $2481
Maryland $735 = $2205
Virginia $368 = $1101

Not too bad of a gig in DC or MD.

Not the OP, but you're an ignorant, callous, asshole.
Intentionally.
Good foster parents are a critical part of the social services system. They love and let go in a way few people can and lavish love and offer stability to kids who have often had little of either. Perhaps a cynical jerk like you would do it for the money, but there are plenty of people who do it for the sake of the kids.
Signed-- niece and aunt to adoptees, and granddaughter of an adoptee who became a social worker who also adopted.

BS

I call BD on you, OP. you're focused on kids eating veggies and breaking toys. Anyone who's been in foster care or fostered kids knows how heavy this is emotionally. Most kids in foster care have experienced a lot of abuse. You're not dealing with those everyday parenting issues

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have your own kids, how do they feel about the foster sibs? Were you worried how they would react? How do the foster kids feel about your kids?

They mostly like it, though it can be stressful at times. If I had high-strung kids or highly sensitive kids we probably wouldn't have done this. While they may cry if a foster child purposely breaks their toy, they can be consoled and get over it within minutes, not hours, and won't hold a grudge against the child for a long time.

Forgot to answer your last question. Generally the foster kids are pleased when they arrive to see that other kids live here. It lets them know this is a kid-friendly house, and often foster kids can take instruction and follow rules when told by other kids that they'd otherwise fight coming from us. Peer pressure can be a wonderful thing. When a kid sees ALL the other kids eating veggies, they're more likely to eat them too.