Balancing foster kids and Bios - Adoption.com Forums

I have two sons, ages 5 and 9, and I have a FS who is 1 1/2 years old. I know that when we started considering foster to adopt, I spoke to both my bios about fostering and how we will be opening our home to children who need a home, but that they may not stay forever. I let them voice any concerns.

Now that we have foster son, it was difficult at first, your first instinct is to baby and coddle the new child...but after abit it becomes natural. I treat it like I had another bio....I try to be the same with our foster son as I would with a bioson.....such as sharing time, toys, etc. Some children require more attention than others...for example my FS is still so young and often clings to me...but my BS who is 5 has been a mamas boy for forever...so we slowly learned to give our FS the attention he needed, but made our BSs feel included. We make sure there are plenty of toys that everyone shares, but some that each child has to themselves.

MY boys complain at times about crying or our FS being loud or something, but that is normal complaints...they love him to death and are really enjoying having another child in the house and helping with his care....It is just like having another child, but suddenly with additional stress of visits, but that stress normally just involves you and doesnt really impact htem as much.

I wish you the best of luck in this endeavor...my husband was nervous at first and was worried it would impact our bios negatively, but now he realizes that it is just like having another child, and it teaches our children some valuable life lessons along the way.

Source: http://forums.adoption.com/foster-parent-support/418649-balancing-foster-kids-bios.html

lesotho