Fighting for the Child

Welcome back to Taylor Talks!

Often, foster parents need to go above and beyond in their duties to stand up for and protect their foster children. We realized this very early on in our foster care journey, when my mom had to look out for my little brother. Now, in order to respect his privacy, I won’t go into detail about what exactly my mom had to fight about, but I will talk about what some problems are with looking out for foster children.

I’m not sure if it’s the state or DSS or what, but someone who’s in charge won’t let foster parents go out of pocket to help foster children. This includes dental, medical, and extra curricular activities. For example, there was a lot of resistance when my parents tried to put a few of my young foster siblings in a “Mommy & Me” or pre-school type program. DSS won’t give you money to do things for the kids, but they don’t want you to put out the money either. It’s really odd.

My parents knew that they had to stand up and fight for what was right with my little brother, and my mom was able to get things taken care of eventually and my little brother’s problems were worked out. The judge on his case told my mom many years later that she tells all other foster parents that she deals with that they need to be more like my mom, and stand up for the best interests of the foster children. Being a foster parent doesn’t just mean giving a child food, clothing, and shelter. It means providing for them emotionally, looking out for them in all areas of life, and being their biggest supporter. That’s something to really keep in mind if you’re thinking about becoming a foster parent.

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Thanks!
Taylor

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