The Positive Impact Fostering Can Have On Biological Children

As you prepare your family to welcome a foster child, you may be worried about how fostering will affect your biological children. This feeling is natural for foster parents who already have children of their own. Thankfully, there are steps you can take before the arrival of a foster sibling that will help make the process as smooth as possible for everyone in the home. While there may be difficult days and a period of adjustment, in the end, fostering can benefit more than a child or teenager in need of care. Here, we’ll discuss the positive impact fostering can have on biological children.

Fostering Empathy

There is a massive need for foster parents in every state in the US, including Illinois. When taking that first step, parents understand that children in foster care often arrive filled with sadness and a fear of the unknown. All have been uprooted and displaced. Some are confused and are missing their own biological family. Others have been abused or neglected by the people who are supposed to love them the most.

Unlike the grown-ups in their lives, children only know and understand what they see and experience firsthand. The arrival of a foster sibling will help your child realize just how fortunate they are to have loving parents and a safe and stable home, and in turn, will help them to become more empathetic as they grow older. After all, there is no better trait to teach a child than showing empathy and kindness to another.

Fostering A Giving Heart

Sharing is not a natural tendency for young children, but the ability to share is essential. Whether it’s a favorite toy, or the attention of mom or dad, foster siblings give children the opportunity to learn how to sacrifice a little bit and develop a more giving heart. This generosity and willingness to share are behaviors your child will take into adulthood. And you can take pride in knowing they will learn about the importance of giving to others through your choice to foster and care for a child or teenager in need.

Fostering A Relationship

If you have an only child, or a small brood, this may be the first time they get to experience forming a relationship with an older or younger sibling. Fostering this relationship may take a little nudge and some effort on the part of parents, but often, getting a new brother or sister can be seen as an exciting prospect to children. Like any sibling relationship, there will be ups and downs, but this will teach children how to work out disputes and how to get along well with others. Just be sure to keep communication open and lead by example. And trust that if and when your foster child leaves your home, the family bonds formed will last a lifetime.

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.