Demographics of Becoming a Foster Family Essay Example

Sexual abuse interferes with the children’s mentalities; some children end up hating the opposite gender due to how they were treated by the parent responsible for the abuse. Moreover, death leads to a lot of grief in these children. At worst, the grief can even lead to mental disorder if not well addressed. For these reasons and much more, the government and many other volunteers have even contributed money in support of foster facilities and even the foster families. The government has also established a policy in the constitution that ensures that these children are well taken care of even in their foster families (Bruskas, 2008).
Due to the conditions that these children may have undergone, foster care is a voluntary social service whereby the families that want to adopt a child have to voluntarily decide to do so. Their decisions are always motivated by the factors discussed below.

The Need to Give Parental Care

According to Bruskas (2008), a family can get obliged to take in a child as a member of their family due to compassion for the child. This relates to maybe the story behind how the child ended up in a foster facility. The family can get compelled to take in the child, just to give them that family and parental love that the child has never experienced, to bring the child up in the best morals possible and to make a successful person out of the child. This obligation might come as a result of the family seeing great potential in the child and having in mind that they can help the child realize and make use of that potential to become a

successful person in life (Maaskant et al., 2016)

Stigma Management by the Childless

According to Park (2002), a couple who agree not to bear children can decide to take in one, so as to cover the shame that might come out as a result of how people would perceive such a decision and to avoid social pressure. Such a decision can lead to a lot of judgment and questioning by friends and family members of such couples (Durham, 2008). Such a couple can, therefore, opt to adopt a child, instead of giving birth to one, thus solving both the problem of social pressure as well as maintaining their decision of not bearing any children.

Fostering as a Source of Income and Special Treatments

Several countries have created special treatments for fostering families. For example according to worker & council (2015), in the United Kingdom, Foster parents are entitled special services like tax benefits and tax allowances, where these families are relieved of tax charges. Also, these families are given allowances such as car allowance and are paid some fee as per Francesca et al. (2011). All these services are availed in support of child caring so as to relieve the families from a lot of expenses incurred in caring for the child. A family can quickly decide to take a child so as to enjoy such services and somehow free payments.

Infertility

According to Sundby (1997), infertility in some cultures is unwanted in countries such as Gambia. A couple with one person being infertile can opt to take a child as theirs so as not to be outcasts from the community. Moreover, there are some infertile couples who long for a

child. Such couples can decide to take in even more than one child to be theirs, care for them as if they were their own and ensured that they do not lack. Such families offer sincere love to the foster children because they take the children as their own (Denby, 2011).

Family and Work Circumstances

Family and work circumstances can compel someone to desire a child who would be playing around the house keeping them company. According to Nelson (2010), some parents can decide to take in and care for a foster child instead of going outside to do an unskilled work. This is connected to the fact that there is some fee paid to foster families as per Francesca et al. (2011). Other parents, however, can decide to adopt a child since they miss the feeling of having the company of a child since all their children have grown and probably the mother has reached menopause. Such parents, therefore, decide to take in children whose ages range from 10 years so as to fill the gap that they feel in their homes.

Special Training on Fostering Skills

Through public campaigns or any other means organized by the organizations responsible, many people can easily reach the information and get trained on how to care for the foster children. According to price et al. (2008), such training equips people with fostering skills such as the ability to provide standard care for another person’s child to promote their welfare, listening and communication skills and many others. One might be afraid of adopting a child because they have no idea on how to care for the child. After undergoing such training, it

can be very easy for such a person to decide to adopt a child since they have now been equipped with the fostering skills (Baum et al., 2001)

Challenges Encountered by Fostering Families

Fostering as a social virtue faces great challenges. Some of these challenges are encountered by foster families. For starters, adapting to the new child at times gets very difficult in case the foster families have their children. The children at times do not want the new one considering how well the foster child is treated by the parents. This makes it difficult for the parents.

According to Oswald et al. (2010), taking care of children with issues such as drug addiction, physical and mental issues, behavioral issues or even disabilities is very difficult. A drug addict, for instance, comes with a lot of issues including frequent cases of fights and other indiscipline issues. These and many other issues always cause disagreements between the foster children and the parents. This is a similar case with the children with the mental disorder. It becomes hard at times to stand them in the house. Moreover, children with disabilities need special attention that at times is not easy to give. Children with history of abuse also at times have mentalities that are hard to deal with such as sexual immorality, hatred for men or women, etc. that were developed as a result of the abuses they underwent (Oosterman et al., 2007)

Foster care requires one to have a big heart to stand and overcome all these challenges and much more so as to help the children under their foster care, otherwise handling foster issues is a great challenge.

References

1. Andersson, G.
   

(2001). The motives of foster parents, their family and work circumstances. British Journal of Social Work, 31(2), 235-248.

Pediatric Psychology, 35(5), 462-472.