How complex attachment can look like divide and conquer! When a baby has early experiences of regularly and relatively calmly having their emotional and physical needs met through kindly interactions both physically and verbally, consistently and without too much stress then they can relax and get on with growing their brain and enjoying new experiences…
Okay so the one thing I always find difficult about writing blogs is how to start them, so I thought I would first just tell you a little bit about ourselves. My name is Charlotte and I married my best friend and now husband Lee last December, we are 27 and 31 years old. We…
Kelly and her partner Dan have been foster carers for a year. Kelly and Dan live with their son aged 9 and their daughter aged 10. Kelly previously grew up as a child of a foster carer and was surrounded by foster children all of her life. Here she tells us of her first experience…
Jenny Molloy aka Hope Daniels or ‘Hackney Child’, as her social worker files named her, spent most of her childhood in care. She is very proud to refer to herself as a ‘care leaver in recovery’. She is called on by government bodies to advise on the care and fostering of children and helped to…
Missing In The Middle Neither one place and neither the other, Neither with Mum and neither with Brother, Stuck in a world in the middle of two, Feel safer in care but still missing you. Hearing you call and the voice is so strong, But living with you was all kinds of wrong, I’m sitting…
I can’t foster because I am single and not in a relationship or I am in a gay relationship Wrong The findings of a recent survey by ‘The Fostering Network’ suggested that approximately 10% of foster carers are single carers. Without finding any more definitive research, our anecdotal evidence (mainly in the South East of…
Attachment is the relationship and bond a child has with a caring adult or adults. Levy & Orlans (1998) tell us, Attachment is a deep and enduring connection established between a child and caregiver in the first several years of life……Attachment is not something that parents do to their children; rather it is something that…
5 Must Have Foster Carer Qualities Patience How long does it take to process trauma? How do you undo years and years of neglect and fear? There is no timeframe. Children will develop at their own speed. They simply need foster carers that will walk alongside them through the process and have realistic expectations as…
The Match It is when I look back at the life I have had, And the things I thought normal, at my Mum and my dad, And yet it was so easy, experience full, Not much was lacking, my glass was well full. So I look with amazement as the referral comes in, The chid…
Expectations of Fostering When we made the decision to be respite foster carers we were full of expectations. 1. It will be wonderful 2. It will be hard 3. It will test us 4. We will know what to do 5. We won’t know what to do 6. They will be very frightened 7. Their…