Should I become a foster parent?

Question

Im 21 and single. I work at an Early Childhood center and love being around kids. I have worked their since I was 18 and have had prior experience working with kids beforehand. I have known that I would become a foster parent since I was 13! But wanted to do so later in life after I raised my own kids, like my parents did. Now that im 21 and meet the age requirement I keep thinking about becoming a foster parent now, but dont know if I will be taken seriously. Any inforamtion will help... I meet all of Indiana's foster parent requirements.

Answer 1

Follow you dream. I have wanted to be a foster parent my whole life. I am 19 and will be soon. In California you only have to be 18.

Answer 2

i think that you should. but only if you're 100% sure you can

give the child a great life and all. :]

Answer 3

well yes i think you should go for it and give 1 or 2 kids a better life but definitly long term because if you think about it there gonna be realy affected having no solid person tht loves them for a long time coz there being passed around like a parcel and not many people love them

so as long as your gonna love them hug them and act like a proper mom to them and bring thm p properly i would go for it

just please bring them up wth good morals and no swearing and stuff and just love coz theres enough bad in the world!!!

Answer 4

21 is young and you are really going to cut off any social life at quite a young age.  Why not wait, date and find someone special to share your life and adopt the child with them?

It is a wonderful thing to do but I think you are a little young to make this big of a sacrafice

Answer 5

Foster kids need 24/7 care.. you would have to put aside any career advancements. Most Foster kids come from drug mothers, dysfunctional homes with abuse, many have physical problems at well.  Working with kids are good but that isn't the sad, troubled kids you would be fostering, they need medical care, some just wont' ever get close to you.  

We fostered teens that their parents didn't want them. The kids were good their parents were nuts.  They came to us for harbor until they graduated from high school.  But to plug into the actual foster home takes lots of classes and patience.

Answer 6

if you meet all the requirements then can soemone stop you, if you want to, but are you ready for akid at the age of 21? Most kids in foster have expereinced a pretty ruf life b4 dey were taken and will require alot of emotional and spiritual help. at 21, you shud be enjoying your social life and having no obligations and partying and makin the most of your age, but if you feel as if you are willing to give up many things to give to your foster child, good luckk

Answer 7

yes

Answer 8

it a hard job my mom does it

Answer 9

I applaud you for thinking about it. I am older than you,lol, but once I was a foster child for many years. I had many  problems that my foster parents didn't concern themselves with, and if I did become an"openly" troubled child, I was shipped off to other people. If foster parenting is like it was when I was little( and I hope not), you might be getting more than you bargain for. Some children don't know what it's like to live in a"civil" home. They may have been in some very dysfunctional families and may "act out". Some, like I was, have been abused by other foster parents and think that all foster parents will be like that. I know now that I was "tougher" on some of my foster parents than they deserved, but some of them were abusive to me too, and none  of them fully gave me what I needed at the time. They didn't even bother to "understand" me. I grew up having to deal with and resolve most of my physical  and mental issues on my own. If you do go into foster parenting, you might see children do things you never imagine they could  even be capable of. I hope you don't "burn out" and give up once you start.

Answer 10

I have seen young foster parents, but they mostly only took babies.  (a 21 year old fostering a 16 year old does NOT work!)

My question is how well are your coping skills?  We were foster parents in our 30's .  I can tell you, fostering was good, bad and all in between.  We have seen most behaviours that could possible be had by a child.  We met some great kids, and for that matter families that we helped.  WE saw many children go home to families trying to change their lives.  BUT, we saw a few go home to places that we really knew they would be back in care in a few months.  This is what I ask if you can handle...raising a child for a year, attaching strong bond, then saying goodbye.  It is hard enough in average situations, but when you know the family they are going back to is wrong, and the problems have truly not gone away, it breaks your heart.  You think about that child and how they are doing.  You can offer to help the family, but they don't always want it.  This is what I found hardest about adoption.  When a foster child leaves, you essentially have to grieve each and every time.  At age 21, well I hope you can handle that part of it, because at age 30 I had a pretty tough time wth it. (depending on the child, there were a few I am sorry to say I did a bit of a happy dance when they left, but I digress)

Best of luck with your decision.

Answer 11

It depends on your life situation. When I was a couple of months shy of twenty an old friend of mine dropped off her child for my roommates and I to babysit, the only thing is, she never came back. Since the child didn't have any other known family members we dealt with all the legal stuff to allow us to foster her while child services was working on finding her a family.

I'm not going to lie, it's very tough. There were 4 of us and it was still tough. We were all going to school, we all had jobs, we all had boyfriends,etc. and suddenly we weren't allowed to be selfish anymore because we had a 10 month old baby girl to take care of.

You also have to be able to cope and adapt to new situations. Babies find homes fast. You could possibly "loose" a baby to a couple just as fast as you get it. It's tough when you've formed a bond and suddenly its taken away, no matter how good of a reason it is.

I would suggest putting it off for another couple of years. Preferably stick with your original plan that way you'll also have the experience of raising your own children. Being an orphan is tough, going from foster home to foster home is tough as well. I think kids in those situations need foster parents with a little extra experience.

Try joining Big Brother, Big Sister and working with the younger kids, it can be just as rewarding without being quite as time consuming.

If in the end you do decide to go through with foster parenting, I wish you luck. It's a very, very tough job but it can also be rewarding.

I hope I've helped a bit. If you need anything else, feel free to contact me.

Answer 12

no, wait until you are a little older.  the earlist age you shuld do this is 25 but maybe 28 or 30.  

for now have fun, finish school, and focus on your career.  you can be a foster parent later but you are only 21 once.