More support for foster parents of Teens!

Thanks! Diane

Any advice for dealing with this comment during battles over rules? It is true because my biological kids have been with me forever, and most of the struggles with them over basic issues were addressed long ago. I no longer fight with them over homework or have to set hard rules for homework time. Sometimes this claim of unfair treatment is just not true. If my kid were do do ____ they would get the same reaction. I also get a disrespectful attitude from my f. daughter that my bio kids have outgrown. It pushes my buttons big time, and the arguements shift gears faster than I can keep up with them. I am left feeling like a big failure at the whole thing, but know I shouldn't be intimidated into softening the rules. It gets pretty confusing, and I am left with big tension between us. I have insisted on a scheduled "talk" a few days after big conflicts to figure out a better way to resolve things between us. This wound up disintegrating into another battle. I want to understand what the dynamic is and how to avoid the blow up. She throws out a lot of "you don't care about me" and "you wouldn't treat anyone else like this!" My foster daughter has been with us almost one year, and she has been a friend of my bio daughter and our family for several years (as she was in foster care and out). We hope to have her with us until she is on her own one day.

There has got to be a special place in Heaven for Foster Parents that foster teens. I would rather have 6 little ones than one teenager that was raised in a dyfuntional home. I am so glad that others can do it. I myself, have to get them when they are little so I can learn to love them before they become an obnoxious teen like I was. Thanks to all the Foster Parents that can parent and love the teens. You are their last chance at learning how to live and function in this world.

Mossy2, If you would like to get many more replies to your post from people who'd know, use the same title for a new thread. Go to the top of the page and click "Fostering Teens" to get to the main area of this forum/topic and click "New thread". I don't think very many people realize this forum is here yet!