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Tips For Foster Parents: 1. Do not just give up on your child and know how to manage relationship trouble. Foster care is hard for even the best foster parents who are essentially the only daily direct caregivers for foster kids. Don’t leave your baby in those first few months alone, even just for short periods. Be there for your foster child, no matter what the kids might be doing or who they might be with.
If you can be there to make sure that your foster child gets the care and support they need even when you can’t, you’ll be more than ready for the challenging and rewarding foster parenting that you will face. Just like any other parent, foster parenting is draining, both emotionally and physically. Don’t allow yourself to start crying while your foster child is crying.
Tips For Foster Parents: 2. The most important tip for foster parents is to take good care of yourself. Yes, the little one is watching you and that’s a big part of foster parenting but you need to remember that your body needs physical nourishment as well. Be sure to get enough sleep, exercise and eat right.
Tips For Foster Parents: 3. Another important tip for foster parents is to have their children’s clothing organized by color. By having their clothing neatly sorted by color, you and your foster child will both be more productive during the day. This will also help you keep track of what your child is wearing. Having their clothing organized by color makes finding them much easier at night.
Here’s an idea that may sound a bit weird but it really does make a difference in fostering confidence in yourself. If your foster child is going into his or her foster home for the first time, you are going to need to take some time to make sure they know how to dress. Ask your foster child to sit down with you in the neutral environment outside of the home to let them see how they should dress when meeting new people and visitors. Then, after they’ve shown you how to do it, ask them to put their clothing on the hangers, which is very important. This way, they will feel like they are a grown up before you even put their clothes on.
Tips For Foster Parents: 4. Finally, if you are trying to be a foster parent and you want to make sure you have a positive influence on your adoptive child, you need to make sure that you spend some time getting to know your foster child’s biological family. You might want to have a holiday vacation to have bonding together. There’s nothing like meeting the biological family of a child who has been adopted to feel connected to them. You can’t just take them to your office and expect that they will be willing to open up to you.
Tips For Foster Parents: 5. The worst foster parents make sure their foster kids feel like “less than” themselves. This is a terrible shame, since adopting a child is supposed to make them more self-aware and “stronger.” One way to do this is to make sure you are constantly complimenting your foster child’s accomplishments. Praise them for trying hard and for working hard, even if they don’t feel like it. Doing so will instill feelings in your foster kids that perhaps they are not as strong as their adoptive parents and that perhaps they need to work harder just to get by in life.
Tips For Foster Parents: 6. If at all possible, take your foster child to daycare on his or her first day of foster care. Not only will it be great for your foster child, it will also help him or her feel like a “real” person. You would be surprised how quickly all of that bonding can be achieved by simply taking them to a place where they will be well-received and cared for.
