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Fostering in the North West
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A day in the life of a new foster carer
July 27, 2010
We are relatively new foster carers and my husband is the main carer. We have three cared for children all under the age of eight.
The middle child is particularly challenging - not naughty, but as she never had any boundaries at all, she finds life a bit of a drag, with all the new rules she has to remember. But she's full of spirit, very feisty and completely gorgeous.
Our youngest cared for child, her sibling, is just three. When he came to us he wasn't toilet trained. He soon learned but has struggled with the procedure and we had to monitor him very closely.
After a day at work, I came into the house and could hear the strangest conversation coming from the kitchen;
"Are you sure you've had a poo?”
"Yes,” came a very emphatic voice.
“And has he had a poo also?”
“Yes, I told you he had!”
“What’s going on?” I asked as I looked at my harassed husband.
“'What’s going on'? You need to sort her out! He's had a poo, I think! And she's had a poo on top of it, but I’m not sure, and I don’t know if he has had one or not.”
Now, my husband is a proper bloke’s bloke and I looked into his serious face and I thought 'I better not laugh or I'm dead.'
I looked into the face of our cared for child, full of mischief and a big smile on her face.
I could understand why my husband thought she wasn’t being completely truthful, but I could tell she had the moral high ground here, as she was telling the truth, whilst managing to sow a few seeds of doubt.
I turned to her and said, “Have you had a poo in the toilet on top of ‘A’s poo?"
“Yes!” she said.
I turned to my husband and, with as serious face as I could muster I said “She has had a poo and so has A.”
He looked at me and I looked at him; what more could I do? I managed to keep my face straight as she sauntered out of the door, chalking up a little victory for herself. She's just six years old; he's fifty!
Later that night, I couldn't hold it in any longer and I started to laugh. “You need to get out more,” I said. “I never had you down as the ‘poo police’. I totally took the ‘mick’ out of him. He accepted my mirth with good grace, and, as it was a couple of hours since the altercation, the kids were fast asleep and he could now see the funny side.
It is a few months down the line now; she is just as challenging, just as feisty, just as funny. But she observes the boundaries more; we are getting there with her.
I will never forget though, the day she got one over on my husband
She always makes me smile; she is worth every bit of time we have spent with her; she is a STAR!!!
Names have been withheld, to protect the innocent (and the guilty!!!!!)
