Before you start your fostering journey it is important to think of everyone who lives in your home with you, as fostering will impact them too. It is important to include birth children living at home in any discussions and decisions.
Fostering can be an enriching and rewarding experience that your whole family will benefit from. Children who foster learn valuable life lessons such as sharing, caring for others, empathy and more. Evidence suggests a proportion of birth children may go on to become foster carers themselves, enter caring professions and many feel that fostering has enhanced their social understanding skills.
Eleri’s family started their fostering journey 4 years ago. She shares her experience of being part of a fostering family, from the start of their fostering journey to the day a foster child moves on.
start of our fostering journey
“When my mum and dad started thinking about fostering, I didn’t know what it was, so I was a little bit confused. But when they told me why children come in to foster care, I knew I wanted to help my mum and dad in every way to get this job. Our Social Worker came round to help us and he was really nice, he started asking me and my sister questions and making sure we were ok with all the changes.”
next step: the fostering panel
“Panel came around really quickly, as we were told there was a child ready for us. We were really stressed, but also really excited. This was during lockdown so we could only get the essentials from the shop, but we managed to work our way around it! The second day the babies were here it really got to me, and I had a meltdown because of all the stress. But mum explained to me that any baby would be unsettled for the first few days, but after that they would be happy and settled in nicely.”
time to say ‘goodbye’
“It was great seeing the babies grow up and learn new things, but the day they go must come. This day was a very happy, but also upsetting day. It was great that the babies were going back to somewhere where they belong, but it was also really sad because I was losing somebody that I had spent all this time with.”
fostering has taught me many things
“Fostering has taught me many things, like how to change a nappy, how to feed a baby and how to get one to sleep. And they are just to name a few things. It has also made me look at the world differently now. You may know somebody and they are going through a hard time at home, but they’ve not told you. So go check up on your friends every once in a while. It has also made me realise I should never take anything for granted, and I should be very grateful for what I have.
Fostering is a great experience and I am really happy that I am still young, and still learning things throughout fostering. There is definitely a time in fostering when it can get hard, but there’s always someone there for you to talk to. I really hope my fostering journey’s helped you in any way possible.”
To watch Eleri’s Fostering Journey video visit our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/maethucymruconwy/videos/1547401348930098.
