Fostering Blog.
A nice thing happened today. On Wednesdays James (name changed) has double games last two lessons of the day. So we came to an agreement that I would pick him up as he is usually tired.
I couldn’t park near the gates so I parked about a quarter of a mile away and walked to the school gates. I had been standing there for about 5 minutes when a lady approached me. She asked if I was James foster carer and went on to say what a nice young man he was.
She was the Mum of one of James’ friends and had met him on a couple of occasions. She also went to say that James had told her how much he was enjoying life, living with me, and hoped it would carry on. I felt really good to hear that as it’s unusual to get a lot of praise as a carer.
So once he had finished his homework we sat and watched a bit of TV. James told me that his Mum had been trying to call him again and when he had turned his phone on after school there was about 6 missed calls. He said he didn’t know what to do and asked me if I thought he should call her. I told him that the decision was his. So he decided he would but he wanted to call her whilst I was there, which I agreed. So he called her. It was an unusual conversation.
She was telling him stuff which seemed inappropriate for a mother to tell her son. She then basically told him that the Social Worker had said that she would have to go through a rehabilitation programme before they would consider returning James to her.
She felt it was unfair and infringed her human rights, but she would do it just for him. James then said an incredibly sensible and grown up thing, he told her that she should be doing it for herself. She didn’t really have much to say about that. He then asked her why she had complained about me as he was very happy living with me and he was being properly looked after.
She asked if I had told him to say that and, to my surprise, he disconnected the call. He said nothing and then said he was going to bed. Once he had gone I quickly updated my diary and sent an email through to his social worker highlighting the conversation.
I really felt for him. He was seeing what most peoples normal life was and he was seeing that his life with Mum was so much different. I also sensed that he didn’t believe that Mum would be able to do the rehab as; apparently, she had tried on a number of occasions and failed, even with the threat of having James taken away looming over her.
So I decided that James would get nothing but positivity from me and that I would only mention Mum if he started the conversation.
A Simply Fostering Blogging Foster Carer.
