Foster Parenting: Real Parents Need Not Apply

Foster Parenting: Real Parents Need Not Apply

What stereotypes come to mind when you think about foster parents?
Oftentimes, foster parents are portrayed by the press and by the movie
industry to be powerful, mean people, who take kids away from their
“real” parents and beat and starve them. Although humorous to some
foster parents, this stereotype is as far from the truth as it’s
possible to be.

Foster parenting isn’t a glamorous job. If you want to make money, if
you want respect, if you want a normal life – I wouldn’t recommend it.

Foster parents are abused by the system for which they are the
foundation. They are frequently told to be “seen and not heard.” Their
opinion is not only unwelcome, it is shunned – this despite the fact
that the foster parents are the ones who are with the foster children
day in and day out. They are the ones who comfort the children when
they awaken, screaming in fear in the night because they want their
parents. They are the ones who wash the lice-ridden hair and feed the
hungry stomachs on the first days in foster care. They are the ones
who read the report cards, go to the school plays, help with the
science projects, take the kids to the doctors and dentists and
psychologists - they are the ones who parent.

However, in court, foster parents have no legal standing as to the
outcome of their foster child’s case. A distant relative who has never
even seen the child has more rights than the foster parents who have
raised and loved the child for months, or, in some cases, years. Often
cases will occur in which foster parents want to adopt children that
they have fostered. Those that do face an uphill battle, because CPS
and the court system are heavily biased in favor of relatives, no
matter how distant they may be. You also see a bias in that minority
children whom white foster parents attempt to adopt – for some reason
this is stronger in the cases of black children – are often removed
from white foster homes against both the child’s and the foster
parent’s will, and placed with a family of his or her own race – the
government’s attempt at politically correct child rearing.

CPS is notoriously good at cutting corners – though that can be blamed
on the fact that it is a government organization, run by government
bureaucrats. While here in Texas foster parents are taking yet another
pay cut – it’s down to 70 cents an hour – nationwide, it’s just as
bad. Foster parents wait months to be reimbursed for medicine and
doctor and dentist visits, and clothing allowances amount to very
little, though that varies from county to county. CPS has been known
to abuse the “level of care” system, in which the foster children are
rated psychologically for their level of abuse and level of care
needed. Ideally, if a Level 5 child (severe abuse, constant and
intensive care needed) were in the foster care system, the foster
child would be placed in a Level 5 home. However, Level 5 homes are
paid more, so CPS deliberately places Level 5 kids in Level 1 homes.
Level 1 homes are not qualified, equipped, or trained to deal with the
severe trauma of a Level 5 child, so often the foster parent becomes
so frustrated that they ask for the child to be moved. This upheaval
only leads to more traumas for the child, and the foster parents feel
a sense of guilt and failure, which only leads to more burn-out,
especially among those foster parents who have been in the system for
the longest time. It’s a vicious cycle, but the government doesn’t
care. It’s all about saving time and money.

What the government wants is not real parents to love and nurture
these kids. They want sheep, people that will do what they are told,
when they are told, and how they are told to do it. The government
doesn’t want advocates for the children. They want to be able to have
total control over these kids’ lives. You think public school is bad?
Try foster parenting!

Child Protective Services says that they care for children. I’d like
to see that attitude really and truly displayed on something besides
their recruitment posters. I’d like to see them really care, really
make the effort; really take the time to do what’s right by these
children. Ultimately, this corner-cutting is going to cost the
taxpayers, because we are going to be the ones building the jails to
hold these kids whom we have so ultimately wronged.
http://www.americandaily.com/article/3931

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