Foster Parenting Step-by-Step: How to Nurture the Traumatized Child and Overcome Conflict

by Kalyani Gopal

My mama, she is supposed to take care of me, that is her job, not you, I guess she just don't care.'When parents decide to foster, they are faced with many difficult decisions, dilemmas and questions. How do you navigate the daily struggles of foster parenting? How can you nurture bonds with your foster child who is angry, sad, and defiant? How can you prepare to step back when it's time to let go?Foster Parenting Step-by-Step is a concise, realistic how-to guide to fostering that summarizes what to expect as a foster parent, and gives hope and immediate hands-on solutions. It guides you through the different stages of a fostering relationship, including common issues encountered at each age and how to tackle them. It also explains the impact of trauma on your how this can show itself through challenging behavior and how to respond to it. This is a book will empower fostering parents with the skills and knowledge to be more successful in their parenting and to give the children they care for the best possible opportunities in life. It will be invaluable not just to foster parents but also to those professionals supporting foster placements.

Genres: Fostering

162 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Susanna Hl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't rate this very highly. Helpful perhaps as an introduction/glossary on some of the relevant issues. The author flitted between data-based analysis and her own personal views without clarifying which was which. The use of data was dubious to say the least, and I kept doing double takes to check I had read correctly. E.g. p127 "An interesting study...showed that only 12-18 months after leaving the foster care system:
- of every ten homeless people, three were adults who had been in foster care as children [this just makes no sense as a full sentence in relation to the 12-18 month figure above]
-almost two-thirds of males and one-tenth of female adults were incarcerated barely three months after being "released" from the foster care system [again, the author referred to 12-18 months, not 3 months]
-one-third were on some form of public assistance and had not finished school
-half were unemployed [unsurprising given that the author has just stated that 2/3rds of the males were incarcerated!]

[Nicoal · Rating 1 out of 5]

The disorganized writing and poor editing make this book difficult to follow. A lot of the terminology and information seems outdated.