What would you say to convince me to adopt a foster child?

Question

or how to make a display advertisement getting people to adopt foster children....

Answer 1

As a former foster child, I can honestly say that being a foster child is like looking through a window at Christmas and watching families having a wonderful time opening presents, being together, and knowing that you are not a part of it.  There is no security in being  a foster child.  You get sent from home to home, never knowing what it's going to be like.

Changing schools, changing friends, hurting, because of the friends and family you left behind.  Never knowing if the new home really likes kids, or they just want the money and unpaid labor.  After a while you get to where you just close in on yourself, stop making an effort to make friends, stop trying to make the new family like or even love you.  After a while, the struggle becomes too much and you start to rebel.  Then nobody wants you and you become a "problem" child.  I personally think foster homes should be outlawed.  A lot of children are put in foster homes.  I think that there ought to be a limit to how long a child is fostered.  The adoption laws need to be changed, so that it is easier for people to adopt a child, instead of having to wait 2-5 years.  If it was easier, the waiting list would not be so long.  Then children would not be growing up in foster homes.  They would be growing up with a loving family.  I was lucky.  Both of my foster homes were wonderful people who actually loved kids.  But I knew a bunch of foster kids who had the other kind.  My heart still breaks when I think of those kids.  Why weren't they lucky too?

Answer 2

If I had to convince you to adopt a foster child, you should not adopt or have any children.  Adoptions are done purely out of love for a child/children (of any age). Wanting to have a child of your own to be responsible for is something that comes from your heart and your spirit. You would know when the time is right without having to be convinced.  You can't run an advertisement that would create that kind of love for children and the need to take another human being into your life.  Society needs to be aware of beautiful children waiting for a home that can offer them love and security and an opportunity to be successful in life.

Answer 3

everyone needs to be loved and have a safe place to lay their head.a child's love is the purest kind, only the lovely need apply!

Answer 4

maybe something like:

imagine your daughter, son, nephew, neice, friends kid, student, ect. felt as if no one wanted them or they weren't good enough. wouldn't you want to make that kid feel they are wanted? i know i would

Answer 5

if you want to adopt a foster child, think about these facts: Forty-one percent of Americans think adopted in general and almost two thirds (62%) think children adopted out of foster care are more likely than other children to have problems in school. A similar proportion -45% and 68%- think children adopted in general and adopted foster in paricular- are more likely to have behavoiral problems. I am an adoptee and yes we do have some problems at school, but it is not with behavioral problems at all. it is with school work is what we have problems with. if you want to adopt you need to consider to help the child with their school work. and don't nag about it or the child would wish that you did not even ask at all. but when they do ask you to help them do it with love. love would win over their issues and they would ask you to help them all the time. it is worth the time to spend with the child because it inproves their social life with our children because they have some one that loves them to talk to. in time they would be able to talk to you about anything.

Answer 6

Who can resist those big round sad eyes? The bruised child?  Pictures of the needy and pictures of the same child happy and playing and all warm and fuzzy. Then pictures of more children in need.

  Let's not forget those moms who have empty nest syndrome.  Love being a mom, but the kids are all grown? There are still kids out there who need you. It's a win/win!

Answer 7

We do not fosterfor our benefit but for theirs.  My guess is that one could only be convinced to foster if they saw the need. So if I had to give a reason to convince someone I would say "Everyone wants to belong"

We have 2 foster children we are in the process of adopting.

When they were removed from their mom they said they felt lost and very alone. We told them that when and if they ever went back to their mom they would always be part of our family.

They always say that we have made them feel like they belong and that was important.

Answer 8

I would tell you my story about how my Aunty fostered two lovely children Brother and sister the little boy was 3 and the little girl 6months old they had been treated badly and neglected along with there other two sisters and their mother was pregnant again.

When they came into our family they were withdrawn and sacred, we welcomed them into our family and treated them as our own, my aunty went on to adopt them and they are now 10 and 13 and we wouldn't be without them for the world i forget that they haven't always been with us and the little girl (not so little any more) is a talented Dancer and very Bright and the little Boy(now a strapping Teenager) is very clever and artistic and a polite young man. These children have brought happiness into our lives and my aunty's other two biological children wouldn't know what to without them they love them as they love each other as we all do.

Answer 9

I'm not sure what you are looking for with this question.  Are you personally interested in adopting or are you trying to find a way to encourage others to consider adopting foster children?  It seems like you are asking two entirely different questions.  If you are asking for yourself then you probably shouldn't adopt a child that is in the foster system.  If you are looking for ways to encourage others to consider adopting from the children presently in foster care, there are already many means to advertise the need for permanent parents for these children.  The children volunteer to advertise themselves on TV specials.  Adoption workers are very clear when working with prospective adoptive parents about the needs of these children.  Their are (believe it or not) adoption fairs, where workers, foster parents, prospective adoptive parents, and available children spend an entire day at a park with picnics and everyone gets to spend time with each other to learn about each other.  I hope that helps.

Answer 10

If you need convincing, then you don't want it.  This is a lifetime commitment, and it should be something that you want.

Answer 11

What u trying to say kids need help to they have no choice in anything im adopted and i love my parents even though there not my real parents i been with them for 13years and i love it so u should ca nah u should do it cause everyone wants to be loved in there life

Answer 12

I wouldn't say anything to try to convince you to adopt from foster care.  This is something you have to have your complete heart and soul into before you even start the process.  You have to be willing to give up your entire life as you know it, along with any semblance of normalcy ever again (that's not to say that you won't have any normalcy again, but you have to be WILLING to give it up).  If you're considering adopting from foster care, I'd probably ask if you think you can handle mental and emotional difficulties, being called really creative and hurtful names, physically abused, have your belongings destroyed and possibly pets killed, basically have your entire life disappear and be replaced with a new, scary one.  If your answer is no, then I'd say you shouldn't adopt anyway, because adopted children CAN have major issues, and if you are not 100% ready and willing to change your life, then you're not ready to parent an adoptee.  Some adoptees skate through life with very few issues.  But if you're not willing to deal with the worst-case-scenario, then you shouldn't do it at all - because I could never support someone adopting who might - MIGHT - end up giving the child back.  Talk about major, unnecessary rejection.

Answer 13

I'm an adoption and foster care social worker.  I don't convince anyone to do anything.

All you can do is make the need known with the challenges and the joys and pray that the right people are called within themselves and answer that call to help.

Anyone can love a baby, not everyone can love an older foster child, and even those that can....love is not enough.  They have to be able to handle the needs the child may exhibit.

It takes a special special person to adopt a child through foster care, especially an older child.

I encourage anyone up to the challenge to embrace it and do it, but I also beg everyone to be realistic of themselves and the children.

Answer 14

I believe that people shouldn't be "convinced" to adopt foster children or become a foster parent.  The children coming from the foster care system more often than not, have experienced severe neglect or abuse and therefore have needs that the adoptive parents must be able to meet.  If PAPs need "convincing" to do this, then they aren't the right people for this kind of adoption.  

I would rather see more education done on what PAPs must do to meet the needs of children suffering from abuse and neglect, what they can expect and what resources are available to them.  I would also rather see complete disclosure on the child's case to the PAPs before the adoption.

I've spent a long time working as an RN in an inpatient child/adolsecent psychiatric facility and I have seen many, MANY, parents of children adopted through the foster care system that were completely unprepared  for the level of care and intervention that their child/children needed.  Many, many times, I've held the hands of adoptive parents while they were sobbing that they were not aware of a history of violence, alcohol-exposure in-utero, reactive attachment disorder and now they have their children (whom they love) in a psychiatric hospital and are fearing for their lives in their own homes.  

I don't think that trying to guilt people into adopting from the foster care system is the way to go.  But rather, education and resources, and most importantly, ongoing support after the adoption would be the way to encourage the right families to choose foster adoption.