Fostering Blog – Doubts.
The exercise classes are going well and certainly James (name changed) is enjoying the consequences of seeing me limp about like an old man. The diet, or cutting down on junk food, is working well too. We’ve had no takeaways and tried to eat fresh food that either one of us has cooked. It hasn’t been easy, admittedly, but it has certainly made a big difference to my bank balance.
James has been doing well with his school work recently and I had an email from his teacher saying how pleased the school is with his performance. With talk of the kids going back to school soon I had a chat to James about how he felt about that and he was very enthusiastic as he was keen to see his mates and Paige.
I explained to him that it would be a difficult adjustment for him and that he had set a standard with his work and needed to keep that up. He assured me that he would and that he would give 100% to his school work. We had a check to make sure that he had everything he needed for returning to work as I didn’t want to leave anything until the last minute.
With the exception of a few bits of stationary he was pretty much good to go. We picked up those bits from the supermarket and we were all ready and prepared.
I had a phone call that afternoon from the Social Worker after all the issues we’d had a couple of weeks beforehand. There had been a meeting regarding Mums behaviour and the harassment we had received with all the phone calls. The Local Authority had come to the conclusion that nothing would be served by prosecuting Mum. I did mention the fact that maybe I should have been included in that conversation as we were the people being harassed.
The Social Worker agreed but hoped that I would understand their point of view. I said that I did but they needed to understand mine too. I told them that no number withheld calls would now be answered and that James was in agreement with this.
He had stated that he wanted no contact with his Mum until she had gone through rehab and was clean as her recent calls were nothing to do with how James was and more about her getting money from him or, indirectly, through me.
I wanted to ensure that everybody understood this and that there were no grey areas about it. Once we had finished the call I emailed everybody, the Social Worker, Social Workers Manager and my Supervising Social Worker to confirm everything that we had discussed in the meeting, just so we were all singing from the same hymn sheet.
My Supervising Social Worker called to go through it all with me but it appeared that I had done the right thing and the Agency was happy with my actions, which was a relief.
I noted everything in my diary so that I had a trail to follow and hoped that Mum would adhere to the decisions that had been made. I had my doubts though.
Fosterman – A Simply Fostering Blogging Foster Carer.
