Wednesday’s Fostering Blog
Today has not been a good day. We did not realise when we erected the tent that there was a piece of pole missing. This meant that with the rain over the last few days we have had a pool of rainwater sitting on one side of the tent – and it appears to have seeped into the inside of Annie’s pod. She was not at all pleased about this situation. As we investigated further – the situation was much worse than we originally thought – the water was actually sitting under Annie’s pod and had also run underneath Lauren’s pod. We had to evacuate them and all their sleeping gear and belongings from the pods. We dried it out the best we could, but with the rain continuing there was no way they would be back in by the evening.
We were fortunate to be camping next to some very close friends who offered to have Lauren and Annie for a “sleepover”. I thought that they would be upset when I broke the news to them that they would not be in our tent after all, but it was quite the opposite – they were ecstatic that they were having a sleepover. Phew!!
We took all their belongings to our friends tent. They really felt it was an adventure. We just needed to hope now that the tent would dry out for the rest of the week. As Charlie and I got off to sleep we could hear our friends husband telling them to be quiet, and a little later giving them their last warning! Charlie and I were in hysterics. How nice it was for someone else to be doing the discipline – even if it was only one night!!
Meanwhile Alice was fuming – she wanted a sleepover, and didn’t think it was fair. I wasn’t prepared to go into the ins and out at this time of night as to why as a foster child she could not be sleeping in a pod with other children. It is a shame that these things are different for them, however on this occasion we know that Annie and Lauren really would not have been impressed sharing a pod with her!! She was so tired her protests didn’t last longer that ten minutes. At least we have got away with it this time. Next time we need to have an answer for her – to help her understand that some times there are different rules for her – and they are there to keep her safe.
A Less Ordinary Family Foster Care Blog
