Fostering Blog.
Yesterday James (name changed) came to me with some Maths homework that he couldn’t get his ear around. Frankly I sat there for about 20 minutes trying to figure out what on earth any of it meant.
Fortunately one of my sons was a bit of a Maths geek so we ‘Zoomed’ him and he explained, for about 10 minutes, what it all meant. I left them to it while I pottered about doing other things. I then heard James in hysterical laughter and walked in only to find them taking the micky out of yours truly for my lack of Maths knowledge.
The rest of the day was spent between James doing his work and me doing an online training course on Food and Hygiene.
James had finished his work so he came in to see what my course was about. We both actually learnt a great deal from it.
I realised that I needed to buy lots of things for the kitchen, such as different coloured chopping boards, in order to make my kitchen more hygienic. So after I finished my course I sat on Amazon and bought a few bits, as recommended by the course. After that we cooked dinner and sat and ate.
We talked about education. James’ mum was of the opinion that education was important, which had been hugely beneficial to him.
I remember working with one child whose mum had said that you could learn more off the telly than in a classroom and the young person believed that and was a nightmare to get into school. But I had no issue with James and his education and I knew I was very lucky with that.
After we had eaten and cleared away we say and watched football (what else?) and James went off to bed about 10pm while I updated my blog and diary for the day.
The following day got off to a strange start when both mine, and James’, phone took turns in ringing from a withheld number. We both chose to ignore it but never actually said why. This carried on until mid-morning and James actually switched his off in the end. At lunchtime it stopped and James switched his back on to find a message.
It was Mum, who sounded high as a kite, begging James to send her some money or take something of value from the house that could be sold. Once again, in the background, there was a male voice telling her what to say.
James rolled his eyes but I could see that the call had upset him and he went into the dining to carry on with his school work. I sent an email to his Social Worker and, surprisingly, she called back shortly afterwards. She had, also, received calls from Mum asking for money and had referred her to DWP.
Mum had become very abusive as had the man in the background. She had disconnected the call and told her manager about it.
I felt sorry for the Social Worker as she had organised rehab for Mum but it had been postponed due to COVID. I had a feeling we were going to be in for a sticky few days.
A Simply Fostering Blogging Foster Carer.
