Fosterman’s Fostering Blog
My nice quiet weekend continued. With James (name changed) safely away with Paige and her family it was a chance for me to do what I enjoy doing most, drinking coffee and relaxing. The Bank Holiday weekend was mainly spent with my kids having family time, playing golf, watching TV and sat in the garden. I had a couple of texts from James asking if I was missing him to which I replied maybe. He also sent some lovely pictures of him and Paige enjoying the sunshine.
On Saturday I received a call from James’ Mum. I was in too minds whether to answer it but decided to. She was sounding a bit out of it, to be honest. She asked to speak to James but I said he wasn’t here and that he was away. She said that she had tried his mobile but it appeared the number was blocked. I said I didn’t know if he had blocked it but also added that where he was staying was ‘out in the sticks’ a little bit and the reception wasn’t great.
She asked where he was and did I have the address or phone number but I answered in the negative. She obviously wasn’t impressed by that answer and starting becoming agitated. She said how dare I let her son go to somewhere and not know the address. She said I was supposed to know where he was at all times and that she was going to contact the local authority and make a complaint. I said that it was entirely up to her but that the local authority knew of the location and had happily agreed to him visiting there. She then became very abusive and I disconnected the call. About 2 hours later I received a call from the duty Social Worker at the local authority.
She asked about James and wanted to know what was happening. I explained the whole scenario to her and said that Mum had become agitated as I didn’t have the phone number and that James had blocked her. I said that I wasn’t aware he had but there was good reason if he had and told her that there was an on-going issue with Mum, and her friends, making abusive calls to both James and myself. The Social Worker said she couldn’t get access to his records as their system was playing up. She asked if I had thought about giving Mum any more information regarding where James was and I answered no. The call ended.
About an hour later the duty Social Worker called back saying that Mum had been on again and was threatening to make an official complaint. I replied that Mum had made quite a few during the placement. Duty said that she had managed to gain access to James’ records and could see why there was no contact with Mum. She said that she would deal with it and that there shouldn’t be any more reason to contact me.
Sure enough the rest of the day was quiet until about 6pm when I received a number of calls from a withheld number, which I ignored. I texted James and he said he was getting the same and was guessing it was her and that he wasn’t answering. It then went quiet.
