Being a foster parent can be an enriching, rewarding experience. Children needing placement in foster homes often come from difficult home situations, making caring, loving and firm foster parents very much a necessity. As it is with traditional parenting, the role of foster parent should not be entered into lightly. Prospective foster parents should carefully weigh the pros and cons of foster parenting before opening their home to a child.
Revel In That Warm Fuzzy Feeling
While foster parenting offers many delights, the most basic is the knowledge that you are making a difference. It's not easy to parent a foster child, especially those with developmental or behavioral problems. Foster parents can delight in the fact that they are providing a much needed service, both to their communities and to a child that needs their help.
A Little Compensation is Always Nice
While taking in foster children is no way to get the means to quit your day job, foster parents are not required to shoulder the financial burden of caring for their temporary addition on their own. Families are provided with a monthly stipend to help cover the cost of feeding, clothing and caring for the child staying in their home.
Emotional Bonds Sometimes Form
The fact that emotional attachments can form during the foster parent-child relationship can be viewed as a pro or a con. While it never hurts to find a new family member in a foster child, the inevitable separation that will occur unless an adoption does first can be heartbreaking for both the child and the foster parent.
Too Many Foster Children, Too Limited Resources
According to FosterSurvivor.net, there are over half a million children in the foster care system. These staggering numbers completely overshadow the minute number of caseworkers there are, meaning that there are often not enough resources to go around. While social service agencies do their best to provide support and education for foster parents and those who would like to be, there is only so much to go around. Some foster parents may have a hard time dealing with a foster child without this support.
Behavioral and Developmental Issues
FosterSurvivor.net reports that "foster children are three to six times more likely...to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems, including conduct disorders, depression, difficulty in school and impaired social relationships." Such issues pose a sometimes unexpected set of responsibilities to foster parents. While not all children in foster placement have such issues, many of them do and it is up to the foster parents and the limited ability of the child's caseworker to attempt to resolve these issues.
