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Deciding to engage in foster parenting means you are deciding to impact the lives of foster children in need. Whether you have just started researching the process or your home is foster-ready today, it can be encouraging to remember life-changing reasons why you should become a foster parent. Read on to learn more.
- You help a child escape a bad situation.
Many of the children in need of foster care come from homes that involved abuse or neglect. Simply having a safe and inviting space for a foster child to stay makes an incredible difference in their lives.
- You add more love to your life.
Whether you currently have a happy family or have an empty home and would enjoy having young people around, inviting foster children into your home means inviting love into your life. Building a bond takes time, but once it’s established, both you and your foster child will benefit from the relationship that is formed.
- You change the course of a child’s life.
A foster child may feel helpless before they come to live in your care. Know that by giving him or her a loving and stable home (even if it’s only temporary) you are giving a child hope for a better life and future.
- You are given a new perspective on life.
Sometimes we complain about silly things in life and forget how good we have it. Fostering a child in need can remind you of how lucky you are to have a loving, stable home. This can give a greater perspective on the important things in life.
- You won’t ever be bored.
Helping a child in need will keep you busy! While foster parenting has its overwhelming moments, it also has its joys, and you will always be entertained. Children keep both parents and foster parents on their toes.
- You will learn more patience.
One of the challenges of fostering is learning patience. Not only will your foster child test your patience, but you will also learn to be patient when it comes to waiting on counselors, doctors and caseworkers. It can seem tedious to attend appointment after appointment, but keeping the big picture in mind that you are helping a child in need will help your patience to grow.
- You stay young at heart.
Having a child around keeps you emotionally, mentally and physically active. You will stay involved with kid-centric activities like playing catch, riding bikes, and celebrating holidays together. Seeing life through the eyes of a child can be rewarding and renewing.
- You get to act like a kid and have fun.
Miss those days when you could play at the park or sit around and play board games? Having foster children means that you can revisit your childhood favorites and relive those memories with your foster child, such as baking cookies together or watching cartoons.
Foster parenting is life-changing in a number of positive ways. Deciding to open up your home to a foster child is a purposeful way to help someone in need, and by inviting love and life into your home, you could change your life for the better, too.
Every child needs and deserves to grow up safe and protected from abuse and neglect, and caring foster parents offer children support and stability when they need it most. At Camelot Care Centers, we specialize in higher-level foster care for children and adolescents that need extra support. We partner with our foster parents/homes to provide trauma informed care and additional services, including in-home counseling, parent support and training, tele-psychiatry, and therapeutic mentoring, to maintain children at the least restrictive, yet most appropriate level of care. Camelot Care Centers (“Camelot”) is a Child Welfare Agency licensed by the State of Illinois, a member of the Illinois Collaboration on Youth (ICOY), and is accredited by the Council on Accreditation (COA).
