I'm so fortunate the the two foster children I have now come from two counties that "get" that this is truly my JOB. I'm not babysitting. I'm troubleshooting some serious issues and unlike babysitting, I am making recommendations on the course of care (mental and medical) and therapy based on what I'm seeing in my home. That requires careful observation, research and training (that I often have to find for myself). I'm lucky that the two I'm dealing with now respect my opinions and input. That seriously was not the case with the last placements. I was a non-existent babysitter.

For me, it is definitely a job. I think the misunderstanding is that most people would never actually do their jobs if there wasn't a paycheck attached... so to speak about fostering like that makes us sound like it's all about the money when the reality is, you carry the same responsibilities as a job with prerequisites to meet and standards and goals to maintain. You constantly keep yourself current on emerging information and research so that you can meet your objectives the best they can. And they're not our kids. To me, that's a job. And like many of the traditional JOBS out there that enrich peoples lives and make the world a better place, our paycheck has nothing to do with it.

Ugh... I hate when people look at you like you're using these poor kids to gain an income when you refer to fostering as a job. Like it's a money mill. I'm sure people have done it and because I'm a SAHM, we certainly have money left over with Cookie. If I were working, most of (if not all of it) would go to the cost of daycare that the state doesn't cover. But I'm home--so we get to keep that. I spend a lot of it on her, but there's definitely some left over. With the older kids, there's absolutely not a dime left over. Especially in the summer. During the school year, they qualify for free breakfast and lunch (although we never let them eat the school breakfast). Lunch and not being home for morning snack alone saves us a bundle with them. Their clothing is another story and that's really hard. But those are the kids where you actually SEE where you can make a difference with them.

Carl has problems. What's worse is that he's been brainwashed to believe that he has countless, horrible, unfixable problems that will doom him to a life of making other people constantly upset and angry--and him being yelled at. We're all adjusting. But I see clearly the importance of doing my job as a foster parent well. Thankfully, so does the state.