Another year passes and another Mother’s Day sneaks upon me in which I have to ponder who’s going to get my attention first. Is it my Mother or is it my wife for whom her 10-year-old daughter will need some help from Daddy to go out and get something to show her affection? I am…
I had not done anything wrong. I was a normal teenager but my parents couldn’t deal with that. My mother had mental health problems which she still struggles with and she would constantly lie to my father about things I had said or done. I had two younger brothers, one of which was severely disabled.…
8.45: It’s a Monday morning and the first thing I do is send an email to all the social workers as a last check for any movements in placements which have happened over the weekend or in the last week. 8.50: I complete the compiling of our accounting form for the last week. This means…
Editors Note: The following poem is written by a care leaver about self harm. The butterflies are the blades. This is not a glorification of self harm but one person’s representation of her personal experience. Broken Butterflies fly away into the dark flutter your wings to hide all your scars fly through the thorns to…
It can sometimes take but one moment in time to stir the soul. One image to encapsulate a reality that for many they had not seen and for others they did not want to see. Chances are if you are reading this, you use some form of social media. If you do, you will no…
Frustration. That was the overriding emotion I remember when I was a worker faced with a lack of ways to engage adolescents in life story work. I, like many others trying to engage adolescents in reflective dialogues akin to those of life story work, was frustrated. The year was 2005. Technologies such as MSN chat…
One evening several years ago my wife and I were watching a television programme about kids and my wife spoke about her aunt who had fostered and how she always wanted to do this. My brother was fostered then adopted so it was in my background so I said we can look into it when…
There was a strong reaction to the first episode of ‘Protecting our Foster Kids’. Our social media channels evidenced quite clearly that the programme left many of us teary, angry and in the main disappointed. The carers were described in many different ways, ranging from “hideous” to “caring” to “unsupported”. The truth of the matter…
Fostering vulnerable youngsters For over 20 years now I have had the great privilege to temporarily become part of numerous children’s and young people’s lives either as a respite foster carer, or in my work as a family support and parenting worker for Children’s Services, NSPCC, Barnardos , Survive and Wish for a Brighter Future,…
Foster Care Fortnight It’s Foster Care Fortnight 2015 and these next two weeks will see the sector talking to the rest of the country and for many, hearing something about fostering for the first time. Having worked in the sector for over 13 year I’d be forgiven for thinking that everyone must know what fostering…