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Alice Holiday

Fulltime Foster Carer - Harriet author of: A Less Ordinary Family

Alice Holiday

Alice – Fostering Blog

Sunday

We have just started a two week holiday on the south coast. It could not have come soon enough as we have felt pretty tired over the last few weeks. Although we had a week away at the start of the summer holiday – a week camping was not exactly relaxing and we definitely need a few lazy days to recover. Charlie has been exhausted too – his boss has been on extended leave, so he’s been covering both jobs for the past two months. The end is in sight as his boss returns from leave shortly after our return from holiday. We were hoping to get some respite for at least part of our time away, but to be honest I just didn’t get myself sorted in time and all the usual options for respite were not available. So we are all going away – the five of us for two weeks. We are staying in a house a short walk from the sea – I am hoping it will mean we get plenty of opportunities to get down by the ocean and get at least a little bit of rest.

We planned the five hour journey with a couple of stops. Lauren has been suffering with car sickness over the last few months, so we wanted to ensure she got some breaks if needed, we also needed to ensure that we switched places and she sat in the front for the last leg of the journey. We have found that she has been fine with the motorway part of the journey – it’s just all the long, windy country roads. For this journey the first three hours are on the motorway, so we switch over for the last part. Fortunately this time she was okay. I think this is something we probably need to check out a bit further, I do wonder whether she has a problem with her ears.

I am reminded again, that I need to make sure I am giving my own children the attention they need. Having a foster child can be a bit time consuming making sure their needs are being met – so much of my attention is on her – meeting with social services, education and so many consultants at hospital due to her complex needs. There are times when I have missed things with my own girls. This is a challenge. I do need to ensure that their needs are also met and that they are not missed – they will only end up resenting out choice to foster if we don’t get the balance right. One thing we we do with our own girls is keep talking to them – telling them when we get things wrong, talking things through – so we know where we are all at and that we are not missing things.

We’ve definitely let this slip a bit during the summer so I am hoping we will have plenty of chances during the evenings when Alice is in bed to catch up.

A Less Ordinary Fostering Family Blog

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