This October we celebrate Children of Foster Carers month and the vital contributions that the birth children of foster carers make to the fostering household.
Growing up with looked-after siblings can have a positive influence on birth children and vice versa, especially when parents are well-supported.
Sandra, a TACT Foster Carer believes fostering had a good effect on her birth children and taking the time to prepare them and explain things helped. One of Sandra’s daughters said, “Being part of a fostering household opened my eyes to the fact that not everyone has a good home, so where we have one, we should open it to young people in less fortunate positions”.
Karen, a TACT Cymru carer said, “It helps that all my birth children are really happy for me and are super supportive. I thoroughly recommend being a foster carer”.
Hannah, another TACT Foster Carer believes that having children should not prevent anyone from fostering, and that a careful matching process is key to helping foster children fit into the household well. TACT is committed to looking very closely at matching to ensure a successful match.
While sharing the experiences of her birth children, Hannah said, “We found TACT to be very open minded about who can foster, and they explained that it would be a case of carefully matching a child with our household, who would thrive alongside our own children.
We began fostering when our son was three and our daughter was two. Our first long-term placement was a 12-year-old boy. There were some concerns about how our son would react to having someone else move in, as well as how our new foster son would manage alongside a sibling with additional needs. However, we need not have worried as they very quickly formed a very special bond.
Both our children now view him as their big brother, and fostering has only been a positive thing for them”.
If you are considering fostering and have birth children, read our blog dispelling myths around this.
During the rest of the month, keep an eye out on our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts for heart-warming snippets.
