Advertisements
This may be a weird question, but I have been wondering about this the past few days...
When you introduce your FK's to people, do you say "This is my Foster Son/Daughter _________"? or do you even mention that they are foster kids?
I was just wondering whether that would be good or bad and how the kids might feel about being introduced to someone as your "Foster" something.
Like
Share
I just say 'This is Z'
Anyone who knows us at all knows that we're foster parents. Anyone who doesn't know what's going on doesn't need to at that moment (excluding doctors, teachers, etc.).
If people ask questions, I'll answer based on how the questions sound: nosy questions get 'that's kind of a personal question, isn't it?' Genuine curiosity gets 'I'd be happy to talk with you about that another time', since I don't want the kiddo feeling like he's Exhibit A for foster parenting 101.
Advertisements
I agree. I simply introduce them.
In fact, we were told very sternly in our foster classes that we should never call them "foster children." They are children. We can label ourselves, as a "foster family" or as "foster mom", but they are not foster kids. They are kids, who are in foster care. So when a situation came up where I needed to clarify - like at the doctor's, I would say this is D, I am her foster mom.
But in most situations, clarification isn't necessary. So I simply introduce them as "my little guy ___" or whatever.
I introduce them as our kids, X and Y. Most people know we are foster parents, so they assume the kids are foster kids. People who don't know us don't need to know anything other than names anyway. I don't explain the relationships of everybody in my family to people outside of my intimate circle of friends because it's none of their business. If i had step children I wouldn't call them that either.
Saturday we went out with 6 kids to a local town for lunch. 13, 8, 3, 3, 2,and 1. Just for explanation here's how it worked out. 1 bio(13), 1 adopted(3), 1 foster(2), 1 foster (1), babysitting the 8 and other 3 yr old. So imagine tryign to explain all of that to people!
Advertisements