Thinking of Becoming a Foster Parent? Here's What You Need to Know

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A lot of business owners, executives and leaders would make great foster parents. However, there are always concerns such as having the time and resources to be a foster parent.

Those concerns are important as raising a child in foster care is different than raising a birth child. Most people are not quite sure what those differences are because while a lot of people wonder what it would be like to be a foster parent, the process is usually a mystery for those who have not gone through it. 

The licensing process for foster parents

The home study process can take several months as it involves a caseworker coming to your home and interviewing you over the course of several weeks. The caseworker would want to know everything from how much you are making to what type of families you and your partner came from. 

The home study also included safety inspections of your home. They will check every window, every room, the neighborhood and all of the things that are in your home to see if they are appropriate for a child. Also, you will undergo a foster parent training. Foster parent training covers the many rules that foster parents must follow, like locking up medication, completing paperwork and not taking a child out of state without permission. 

There are foster parents who decide to become therapeutic foster parents, which meant that they will take children with behavioral and emotional issues. It could be challenging to become therapeutic foster parents and it requires more work, but if you wish to become one it is best to team up with an agency that specializes in therapeutic foster care. 

Welcoming the child into your home

Once you have your foster care license in hand, you are ready to go. You can start with short-term respite care, which means that you would mostly be taking children in for the day or the weekends so their foster parents could have a break. 

At that time, there are strict rules about babysitters. Foster children could only be cared for by licensed daycares or other foster parents. So a lot of them were eager to find other foster parents who could watch a child when they needed to attend an out-of-state commitment or they just needed an afternoon to themselves.  

Parenting a foster child

The most difficult part of being a foster parent is uncertainty. You will never know how long a child would be in your home and you won't know for certain where a child would go next. And while some foster parents do not like the feeling of uncertainty, it is clearly much worse for the child. 

In addition to tolerance to uncertainty, raising foster children also requires flexibility in your schedules. Children in foster care have a lot of family visits, meetings with caseworkers, therapy appointments and a lot of other things that are scheduled for the middle of the day. 

The best part about being a foster parent is seeing a child get to be a child. When they laugh and play, or when they get to do activities like camping or going to the park, they get to experience a few moments of joy in their childhood, even though they'd been robbed of a normal childhood. 

There are almost a half million children in foster care in America. And usually, there are not enough local foster families to support them. Finding a home close by can allow a child to continue attending the same school, having the same teachers and keeping their same friends can be important when everything else in their lives has been turned upside down. 

If you have thought about becoming a foster parent, you need to learn more about the process. You might decide it is not right for you or maybe you see that it is not the right fit for you right now. But you also might discover that you are up to the challenge.  

ALSO READ: What Parents Need To Know About Having A Foster Child And How It Could Change Their Life For The Better