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Hi everyone!! I’m considering fostering or fostering to adopt in the future and was just looking for some logistical information to try and figure out how I could make it work. I’d be a single parent... so a lot of my concerns revolve around my work schedule. I know there are many working couple families as well out there so I’d like to know - how do you figure it all out? I understand that with fostering, you can get a call for a child anytime and you have to be ready within minutes. What if you’re both at work? What if it’s in the evening and you have to work the next day? I don’t know that my work would be willing to allow me the day off, especially at such a short notice, although I suppose ill never know unless I talk to them about the situation haha. Do you guys have to use vacation days for this? Any helpful tips would be greatly appreciated!! I’d love to be as prepared as I can by ensuring the agency that I’ll have everything planned out. Thanks in advance :)
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It's tough -- but I'd think as a single parent, you'd really either need a really awesome worker that'd be willing to work around your needs or a really awesome employer that supports your goals and is willing to work with you if/when situations come up. Talk to the local worker and see if they can give you some advice!
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Thanks for the reply! I suppose talking to my local worker is the best option to figure things out for sure, I just wanted to see what other people have done in that type of situation. I won’t be looking at officially doing this for another while as I still have to save up money for a place to live, but once I do have a two bedroom place I would love to try and make fostering work!!The good thing is my employer is in the child care sector so perhaps they might be understanding if I told them I was interested in fostering? I really hope something will work out!
Thanks for the reply! I suppose talking to my local worker is the best option to figure things out for sure, I just wanted to see what other people have done in that type of situation. I won’t be looking at officially doing this for another while as I still have to save up money for a place to live, but once I do have a two bedroom place I would love to try and make fostering work!!The good thing is my employer is in the child care sector so perhaps they might be understanding if I told them I was interested in fostering? I really hope something will work out!
Hi, Megan. I'm a single foster parent- but I only do respite and emergency placements. This might be a good way for you to get started. Often times, foster parents can't take kids out of state on trips or need a break, so they ask for respite. I often take kids from these situations for just a weekend at a time. This might be more feasible with your concerns- and it is really helpful to full time foster parents (and agencies). Just a thought!Best of luck!
Hey, My husband and I are foster parents and work full time. Working full time and not wanting to use all your vacation time, it's important to have child care lined up ahead of time. Talk to several day care centers ahead of time and have a list ready to go, so that when you get a call you can quickly determine if you will have child care ready to go or not. I got a call about our placement while I was at work, and at that time we scheduled her to be dropped off the next afternoon. We had the evening to prepare for her arrival, although since she's about the same age as our bio daughter, we had most of what we needed. I think that DHS workers work with your schedule the best they can, but you will need to have some flexibility with work, so I'd talk to them as well. For instance, we have case workers visits once a month, and have to leave work about an hour early in order to get home in time. There's also doctor/dentist appointments that we have to leave work for. Hope this helps!
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