Foster Care Victoria

gg_lewis · Newbie Joined: 12 Jun 2008 Posts: 1 Location: Melbourne

I'm not in a financial/appropriate lifestyle position to do it yet, but I'm really interested in becoming a foster carer. I'm a professional Nanny and I love my job, and I read Deb Lee's "Mixed blessings" and I think it would be an incredible thing to do.
Can anyone tell me more about foster care than what's mentioned on the general publications?
Personal experiences, how you handle it emotionally, how you handle it finanically - do you work full time? If so, where do the children go during this time?
Any stories, advice, ideas, I'd really appreciate it.
Thank you Smile

bowie23 · Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 10:33 am Post subject:

Great to hear you're thinking about doing such a worthwhile thing gg!

The best thing to do is probably get yourself to an information session and hear from a foster carer directly about their experiences.

Emotionally it can be very draining at times but myself and other carers will tell you that it can also be hugely rewarding and personally enriching.

Many carers, both couples and singles, work full-time. For the most part they either care for school-aged children or young people or provide respite care on weekends, but it is definitely not a rarity for carers to work fulltime. If children are school-aged, they often attend before and/or after school care like your own children would in a similar situation.

As for the financial side of things, it is definitely something you have to think about. That said, carers come from all different socio-economic groups and all income levels are represented among the carer population and they all get by without difficulty. My mother was a single mother of two who worked part time and at the same time was a foster carer for four years. We were paying off our small house at the same time and fostering did not hugely effect our financial situation at the time.

I hope this answers some of your questions. I'd love to hear about anything else you would like to know, and hopefully some others can tell you some of their stories also.
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