• I know a lot of people who foster. There’s generally two situations, ‘foster to adopt’ and ‘emergency placements.’

      Emergency placements are when a 13 year old shows up in the middle of the night with a trash bag holding the sum total of their belongings because they were in a dangerous situation and while the courts figure things out they need a place to stay for a couple weeks.

      Long term fosterage is often done with the hope to one day welcome the child legally into your family. I know two different young couples who raised infants into toddlers and had to ‘give them back’ to families who were strangers to the child.

      They knew the risks, that doesn’t mean it hurts any less

      •  Devi   ( @Devi@beehaw.org ) 
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        51 year ago

        That’s not normal. Foster placements are almost always intended to get the child home. The parents don’t stop being the parents and usually have a list of conditions to follow, this might be drug testing, improving the home, etc.

        It can be quick, a couple of weeks, but it’s often slow. With having to get off drugs they have to do X amount of weekly drug tests to prove they’re long term clean, 6 months isn’t uncommon for serious addicts.

        This baby was intended to go home and they knew it.