Fostering a child is a rewarding experience to the care of a child who needs home care. If you want to foster a refugee child,you should try your best to impact the child’s life positively. You will help the child who is not at their best moments in life.
Here are tips to guide in foster parenting:
1. Have clear reasons why you want to become a foster parent.
It is essential you understand why you want to become a foster parent first before taking the child to your home. Some people want to foster a child when they do not have clear reasons. If you are fostering a child because you want to increase your family members, you might find being a foster parent challenging. The child might want to reunite with their family. Most children come to foster homes because of negligence by their biological parents. Foster care can be a good way to help children recover from trauma and anxiety. Fostering a child helps the child to enjoy healthy family care.
2. Learn the requirements of fostering and contact a licensed agency.
Foster care is managed by the local authorities working with probate agencies. When you want to foster a child, you should contact the agencies to guide you. It will be better to be comfortable talking to the agency people as they help you prepare to live with the child. It is important you look for the right agency to support you in the fostering journey. The agency can help you to connect with other foster parents.
3. Get the basics ready.
When you want to foster a child, you should prepare yourself with the child’s basic needs. Have items like clothes, personal care, food, and school items for the child. When you meet your foster child, make them feel comfortable, and ask them if they need anything. Make them feel you are there for them, and they should be free with you. Some children might be shy to ask anything to eat or drink at first.
4. Look for a support network.
Foster parenting can cause you to isolate yourself. Most people might not understand the experience of welcoming new people to your home who are not your relatives or your biological children. Most of your friends might not have experienced the stress of foster parenting. You need to maintain the child’s confidence not to share everything with your friends about the child.
The people with a clear understanding of the foster parent are the other foster parents. Finding a support network will be helpful to you. When you connect with other foster parents, they will answer anything you need to know in foster parenting. They can help you deal with a certain child’s behavior and any challenges you might have.
5. Do not underrate the significance of the birth parents.
When you foster a child, you think of how much you love it but do not ignore their parents. The child’s biological parents might have done wrong things that caused the child to end in foster care, but they wish to take care of their children as well. They love their children and want to reunite with them. Hence it is important to keep communicating with them frequently. It is good you create a strong relationship with them.
The biological parents might be nervous because they do not know you, even if you stay with their child. Be kind to them and give them details on how their child is doing. In most cases, the relationship between the foster parents and the biological parents can be positive, and you can unite them. However, do not expect the relationship to be smooth. It might have some challenges. Respect the biological parents and be supportive of them.
6. Be careful when talking about their biological family.
Regardless of the biological parents’ behavior, be careful when talking about them in front of your foster child. Your foster child might want to talk about them from time to time because they miss them. Be calm when talking about them, even if you feel angry when you remember what they did. Your foster child might be upset with their parents, but they might get defensive if you talk negatively about them. Listen to the child and show mercy instead of giving your negative opinion about the parents.
7. Take care of yourself.
Even if you are concentrating on creating a good environment for your foster child, you need to take good care of yourself. It is also your period to adjust when you have a new person living at home. You will not manage to provide good care to your foster child if you have stress. Take time to clear anything stressing you before you foster a child. You can start to meditate, going for walks, or looking for a new hobby to clear your head. Look for anything that helps you to relax and be stress-free.
8. Establish yourself as a parent.
If you want to help your foster child be free with you, you must show them you are their parent from the beginning. You will not help them if you act like you are their friend because they need a parental and organized environment. You need to explain your house rules to your foster child from the first day they come to your home. Tel them which rules you can negotiate but use a polite tone when explaining the rules to them. Also, describe which consequences they may face if they break the house rules.
9. Maintain good communication.
Normally, people do not tell strangers everything. You might be a stranger to your foster child the first days after the meeting. The foster child might be reluctant to tell you about their secrets as you are a stranger to them. However, it would be best to create a good communication which the child can feel to talk to you freely. Let the foster child know you are there for them if they want to talk about anything to you. Check on them frequently and ask how they spent the day or how they feel. At first, they may have short casual responses, but they will get free to talk to you about anything with time.
10. Lower your expectations and be flexible.
You might have your house rules, but you should consider your foster child is from a different environment. You cannot expect them to adapt to your house rules right away. Sometimes they might make mistakes. The foster child might have bad behaviors that they have a hard time trying to change. As a good parent, you should not be hard on them but give them room to adjust to new things.
Bottom line.
Foster parenting is challenging and not as easy as many people might think. You have parental roles of ensuring the child gets medical attention, education, clothes, food, and shelter. Sometimes you might need to provide therapy attention if the child needs it. However, regardless of the challenges fostering a child is a good and rewarding experience. It helps you prepare if you are thinking of adopting a child. It gives you a fulfillment feeling when you give love and care to a child who needs it.
Laila Azzahra is a professional writer and blogger that loves to write about technology, business, entertainment, science, and health.