If you are involved in an unwanted pregnancy, you could consider putting your child through an open adoption process. Thus, you need therapy or counseling. Adoption counseling is help that is intended especially to explore and cater to your needs.

Counseling As Overall Guidance

The help we are referring to here is known as adoption counseling, and it just may be your savior if you need to sort through your emotions.

We should learn more about adoption counseling and what birth parents and foster parents should do.

Adoption Counseling: Important Goals

Adoptions counseling, often known as pregnancy services, is intended to provide support and assistance to hopeful adoptive families in learning and understanding more about their prospects of foster care.

According to adoption agencies, services and support for this and related stuff, including counseling services, are accessible to all prospective birth parents, with no extra fees and no duty to move forward with a plan.

Some Of The Benefits

Help for adoption provides benefits to adoptive families. Your designated licensed counselor will give the aid, advice, and guidance that you require throughout the whole foster care and adoption journey.

You are confronted with one of the most arduous decisions that a future parent can make.

You might feel great about your decision to proceed with the adoption and feel prepared to start the process.

Whichever way you’re taking, individual sessions of mental help services are very much preferred.

Changes Your Path

This will help instill coping strategies in adopted children regarding difficulty trusting, child trauma, child abuse, and grief, and help children understand the life struggles they are going through.

But if you are doubtful of your options and you have concerns as a parent, first read these adoption stories and reasons for considering family counseling or post-adoption counseling.

You can stay an anonymous person and hide your identity unless you are prepared to go through with the process.

Should you need more data about adoption choices, you can make a phone call to your adoption agency or a foster care system counselor to ask for this data without giving out your personal information.

You Are In Control Of The Whole Process

• You are in control of the whole process, especially in a difficult time. You can speak with your own counselor consistently so that someone can walk you through the steps of the plan or get an occasional peek when you need help for adoption. You could also modify or stop your plan any time you want. Most foster families do that. For example, you would like to prefer the good mental health of your foster child, especially without fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, complex feelings, or behavioral challenges such as reactive attachment disorder. You can also look into support groups and ask about a wonderful option for you. Rest-assured, support for your concerns and your parenting journey as a whole will always be there.

It’s really up to you to decide the type of service you prefer to have and what kind of relationship you wish to establish with the process.

 

• As mentioned, you have support and assistance in traversing the adoption plan. If you do opt to move forward with the plan, your very own professional therapist or social worker can definitely assist you in drawing vital decisions for your infant throughout the whole process. An adoption counseling expert – and adoption attorney, if needed – will be behind you through the various steps along the way as you design the adoption plan, seek adoptive families or adoptive parents, and navigate the legal process of putting him or her up for adoption. There will also be challenges post-adoption, and the healing process will not be easy.

• You can deal with the difficult emotions that are in your way. Every potential birth family goes through periods of pain, grief, anxiety, and depression. Most moms go through postpartum depression. Your adoption counseling expert will guide you through this critical time. When you’re stable enough, you can now start healing positively. Your social worker and support groups will be there.

• You can get help in tackling other needs or concerns. Parents who opt to have their baby adopted have various intentions. If you are thinking about adoption due to a primary issue, like financial loss, lack of family support, experienced trauma (PTSD), substance abuse, or an abusive relationship, your adoption counselor can assist in finding more resources to help tackle some of these issues.

When you are prepared to talk to an adoption counselor, either to discuss your options or to initiate the process, you may worry about who can offer to counsel.

Adoption counselors could be psychologists, family therapists, social workers, or pastoral therapists that have been selected to specialize in adoption.

They are tasked to discuss with family members or the whole family your concerns. They are there to make you feel secure.

The most common places to look for foster care or family counselors are frequently fosterage facilities that employ certified social workers experienced in coordinating with birth parents.

Most groups or organizations include support and counseling services free of charge only for potential birth parents and their families.

As you start the process of seeking adoption counseling, remember to choose a counselor who:

• Has a connection and can gain access to several information and resources, along with the adoption experts, including lawyers.
• Has extensive knowledge of adoption and how to deal with depression, trauma, relationship issues, etc.
• Is licensed and has gotten birth parenting and adoption training.
• Is experienced in explaining adoptive parenting and adoptive parents.
• Is capable of comforting parents and giving them a sense of acceptance.

Takeaway

It is vital to look for an adoption helper who can make parents feel comfortable, supported, and safe.

The perfect adoption helper can offer all the services, parenting support, and education you need to develop the right decision that you feel great about.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is adoption counseling?
2. What are the 7 core issues of adoption?
3. How do you heal adoption trauma?
4. Is adoption traumatic for adoptees?
5. What is adopted child syndrome?
6. How do I become an adoption counselor?
7. Can Counsellors work with adoption?
8. What do adoption Support advisors do?
9. What is an adoption support agency?
10. What is a post-adoption social worker?

Deciding to support a child by providing for his needs or giving him a home – becoming foster parents to a foster child – can be fulfilling but it definitely comes with a lot of responsibilities.

Have you heard of foster care? Who needs counseling for foster children? How does a family benefit from foster care? How do children prepare for such counseling regarding foster care or voluntary placement? Let’s look into the foster care system to be able to understand how foster care helps.

Foster Care Children Counseling – What The System Is All About

Foster care children, whose birth parents have abandoned them, young adults, or who have died early in their childhood, need foster parenting more than anyone.

Since many children carry and suffer a lot of emotional baggage and thoughts, such counseling is suitable to assist them to unload and breathe before leaving child protective services and joining their permanent families.

What entails being in foster care? What is a foster care system? Who can be a foster parent? And can everyone in foster care benefit from foster care counseling?

Let’s read what the child welfare system got to say.

Counseling can be utilized to deal with a range of issues or post-traumatic stress disorder associated with foster care and adoption.

1. Some ways that counseling may assist people in coping with foster care and adoption may include:

2. Informing the child that he is adopted, and they’re his foster family.

3. Discovering a child’s identity with best interests.

4. Giving attention to behavioral disorders in foster care or adopted and vulnerable children.

5. Processing PTSD, abuse, or trauma as they leave foster care.

6. Healing attachment problems that children or adults that were in foster care have gone through.

7. Working through addiction, depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues.

Attachment issues may be managed or treated with rigorous attachment-focused counseling, along with family and child trauma work.

Experienced and compassionate caregivers can self-regulate and offer children in foster care what education is required to help with the mental health of their foster child successfully.

Adoptive Family Counseling – Principles In Parenting And Other

Counseling is commonly advocated for families who are looking to take in a foster care child out of home care or concurrent planning.

In counseling, foster care families can prepare themselves for any concerns that might emerge like funding, and learn how to adjust to a foster care child’s specific needs, including any health, medical, or behavioral problems.

But worry not. Foster parents are provided with adequate support and parental rights from foster care institutions for these things.

They can even receive financial support from some states, like Washington State, for the future if it is a part of the contract. Some can even help them attend college.

For more information on how foster parenting works from a legal perspective, you may check your location’s child welfare information gateway or the children’s bureau.

Foster Parents

With the foster care child, the foster care family members can talk about any developmental and psychological problems and work on them as a family to build trust and establish connections.

Foster families who decide to adopt a child with certain developmental or psychological problems might find their position daunting and consider surrendering the foster care child back to the foster care home or agency.

Some of these problems may be manageable through counseling, avoiding further interference with the child’s life.

Attachment Issues

When a foster child goes through attachment issues, trauma, or was abused, it might be difficult for him to trust the foster care family.

Foster care counseling and foster care programs help the new family members train for better guardianship for the foster care child in whatever he needs.

In family counseling, the formal foster care family can practice empathy and make the foster kid feel secure and safe in his new foster home to avoid youth aging.

Trauma Counseling For Children

Therapy or counseling may be useful for children going through placement or relocation to a group home care.

Still, those who have experienced child abuse and suffered from severe emotional trauma or neglect might have a challenging time adjusting to a new foster care home without the assistance of social services or the foster care counselor.

Role of Social Workers

Social workers may also provide assistance and resources to some foster care children of any age, although substantial caseloads frequently imply that social workers can’t spare enough quality time with each foster care child.

Foster children who have been disappointed several times because of the foster care system may not put their trust that easily in foster homes, and involuntary placement occurs.

Trauma Counseling

Trauma counseling or therapies, including trauma-based cognitive behavioral therapy, have proven to assist adults, young people, and former foster youth who go through trauma from adoption or foster care.

These therapies may work on trauma by concentrating on attachment problems that the individual or person may have grown to develop.

Trauma-based therapy usually assists individuals in processing their feelings following a traumatic event and may even help manage depression or anxiety due to trauma.

Play Therapy For Children

In some situations, play therapy is beneficial for foster care and adopted children.

Play therapy has been especially helpful to these foster care kids because play therapy involves self-expression and might be more convenient for most of them rather than expressing their thoughts and feelings in words.

When there is trauma, play therapy can function as a connection to the child’s feelings and may help counselors and caregivers learn how to assist the child.

Play therapy may also be utilized to work on anger issues and behavioral problems that children might have developed from their trauma.

Adoption And Support Groups

There are plenty of support groups created to help foster care kids and adoptive parents.

These groups enable foster parents to gather, provide support, and talk about foster care experiences or about difficulties that may emerge in the parenting journey.

They can help foster care parents solve problems, and involuntary placement, share information and techniques, and inspire each other.

Participating in a support group for foster care families can be a vital aspect of self-care.

It may also assist a lot of foster parents in helping them feel more emotionally revitalized and prepared to deal with certain difficulties that their family and relatives are confronted with.

Final Thoughts – In A Nutshell

There are apparently plenty of support groups that provide support and advice to foster parents and families of foster children.

Still, foster care and adoptive children also benefit tremendously from participating in support groups.

They may be composed of kids, teens, and adults of all ages and concentrate mainly on individuals who came from foster care homes.

International adoptees, like African American, can actually participate in support groups that permit them to connect with people who come from similar circumstances.

These counseling groups can definitely help individuals feel safer and successfully get through their past experiences.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What Do You Mean By Foster Care?

2. How Does This Work?

3. What Is The Difference Between This And Adoption?

4. How Long Does A Homeless Or Orphaned Youth Stay With You?

5. Can This Be Done For The Long Term?

6. Do You Get Paid To Care For Homeless Or Orphaned Kids?

7. Can I Do This While Working Full-Time?

8. Can It Lead To Adoption?

9. Can I Take A Foster Kid On Holiday?

10. What Is The Allowance System?

11. How Much Do You Get If You Agree To Support A Child?

12. How Long Does It Take To Become A Support Parent?

13. How long can a foster child stay at a foster home?

14. Can you visit your child in foster care?

15. How long do most foster parents last?

Children who grew up in a foster care facility experience trauma throughout their lives. This means their psychological wellness and behavioral health, while in foster care, are not at their best.

Even though they’re happy with their foster care family, there are still instances where they’ll fall into the pit of sadness and even develop psychological wellness disorders like post traumatic stress disorder. That’s how unpredictable their lives are.

The instability of the emotions of children in foster care stems from the constant move from family to family. On top of this is the loneliness they feel without the comforts of their biological family. This can lead to psychological wellness issues and even substance abuse, which will require professional care. Some foster care kids also end up entangled with the criminal justice system.

Because of this, the risk of developing disorders for foster care youth is high. The American Academy of Pediatrics associates this with the fact that most of the physical, emotional, and psychological wellness needs of children in foster care are not met. Some of the statistics that they revealed regarding the psychological wellness issues of a foster care child are the following: 

– More than half of the children in foster care have clinical mental health disorders, which require psychological wellness treatment

– Upon growing up, 34% of children in foster care experience more than two psychological disorders

– 11.6% of children in foster care experiences Panic Disorder at least once in their lives, which requires help from  professionals

With this in mind, what is the role of foster parents in ensuring that the mental health of your foster care child stays healthy throughout? Here are ways on how you can support children in foster care in this psychological wellness care journey. 

Establish Effective Communication With Foster Youth

One of the traumas that foster children experience is being unheard of. This is a big factor in the child welfare and mental health care needs of these kids. Given that foster care youth do not have someone look after them most of the time, they long for someone they can talk to. Therefore, it is your primary responsibility to listen to them. 

Make sure that you don’t treat foster youth as if they are an outsider. Let them know that you’ll always be there for them despite not being blood-related. Make foster care children feel comfortable by offering help whenever they have any problems or whenever they encounter difficulty adjusting. Allow foster care children to vent out their concern before giving your advice.

Offer mental health support because they need it. If necessary, you can also seek the help of mental health professionals or child welfare services. A mental health professional can promote child welfare for foster care kids. They can also conduct a mental health evaluation and provide mental health support where needed. These professional mental health services are necessary for kids in foster care.

Take Care Of Your Mental Health First

To be able to take care of the mental health needs of your foster care children, you have to take care of yourself and your well being first. You will only be able to fulfill your responsibility as a foster care parent fully if you’re as stable as you need to be. The best way to go about this is to find a support network. 

Believe it or not, being a foster care parent isolates you from the general population most of the time. The majority of the people do not understand how it works, and they are likely to judge you for offering your foster home. They’ll question your desire to house foster care children who are practically strangers to you. Having to deal with these questions about foster care can cause you to feel stressed and sad. Some foster care parents even develop a mental illness because of the stress.

However, you are lucky to have other foster care parents who can fully understand where you are. Make sure to maintain constant connection and communication with them. It is vital to have people who can understand you and the challenges you’re facing with foster care.

Should you have questions on the technicalities of foster parenting, ask them for advice. If you feel the need to take a break, call them. This support group will be healthy for you and your child’s mental health in the long run.

Implement Positive Discipline In Conflict Resolutions With Foster Care Children

Foster care children experience extreme things throughout their lives. Therefore, there will always be instances where foster care youth will do something terrible and unacceptable. Their capacity to differentiate right from wrong might be a little rusty because of how they grew up. This means their mental and behavioral health are not at their best.

Always keep in mind that these children in foster care are doing their best. What they’re doing may not be aligned with your values, but you can always address them. Sufficient conflict resolution requires love and support, not punishment and stern discipline. This means offering mental and behavioral health care. Understand that corporal punishment may not be the best way to go because of the trauma they have faced in the past. 

Here’s how you should attack conflict resolution with children in foster care:

1. Understand The Behavior Of Your Children In Foster Care 

Deep dive into what makes them who children on foster care are and focus on that. If you don’t know the reason behind every move, it will be hard for you to solve it. 

2. Build A Solid Bond With Your Foster Care Youth

Be as open as possible, and do not keep secrets from them, especially if something is related to their identity. Once they trust you, it will be easier to talk to them and improve their mental and behavioral health.

3. Always Remain Calm With Foster Care Youth

There will always be instances where your foster care child will push you to your limits. However, losing your cool will only push them away. Always be gentle to foster care youth and never hurt them physically to discipline them. Child abuse is never the answer — child welfare, mental and behavioral health care are.

4. Reward Foster Care Youth

Whenever your foster care child does something good no matter how simple it is, make sure to reward them. This technique is what we call positive reinforcement, a part of mental and behavioral health care. If you show your appreciation to your foster care child, they’ll tend to do better. 

Being A Foster Care Parent – A Challenging Role

It is not a surprise to others that being a foster parent is challenging to do. It demands a lot of sacrifice from you—time, money, commitment, and effort. Add to this the difficulty in ensuring that your foster care child’s physical and mental health are taken care of, not to mention behavioral health. But along with difficulty is a complement of a fulfilling emotion, especially when child welfare is met.

The fact that you’re providing an impact on a foster care child’s life should be enough to make you happy. It may be chaotic, messy, and unpredictable, but it is also gratifying, redemptive, and remarkable. These are feelings from foster care that most people won’t feel in a typical setup. As a foster parent, you’ll be lucky enough to experience these fantastic emotions. 

FAQs

Does Placement In Foster Care Impact Individuals Psychological Wellness?

How Can I Improve My Child’s Psychological Wellness?

What Is The Importance Of Fostering Positive Psychological Wellness, Well-Being, And Child Welfare?

What Are The Benefits Of Good Psychological Wellness In Children?

How Can I Help My Kid If They Have Been Entangled With The Criminal Justice System?

What Is The Impact On Others Living With A Foster Care Child With Psychological Wellness Concerns?

What Measure Can Be Used To Predict Placement Instability In Foster Kids?

How Can You Achieve Positive Psychological Wellness And Good Well-Being?

What factors can have a positive effect on the health and wellbeing of children?

What is the importance of good mental health among the youth?

How can we prevent mental health issues in children?

How can children look after their mental health?

What are the emotional benefits of good mental health?

How can schools help children maintain their mental health?

How will you deal children affected with psychological and emotional issues?

How can we promote and protect mental health in child care?

Fostering can be a sensitive topic. It’s understandable if you’re unsure if it’s appropriate to ask questions or discuss something related to the situation. However, curiosity can lead to awkward, uncomfortable, and inappropriate queries. For everyone’s reference, here are things you shouldn’t say or do around foster families.

Don’t Bad-Mouth The Biological Families

When someone meets foster kids, they tend to make assumptions about their biological families. Every child comes from different circumstances and is in a different situation. The system may have taken some children out of their homes due to abusive families.

However, some may be unable to take care of their families due to mental illness, financial struggles, and other reasons. Some biological parents will even be able to get their kids back later on. It is incredibly insensitive to judge the foster child’s biological family. It can also be hurtful to badmouth the parents in front of the kids.

Further, their backstory is confidential. Foster parents will be unable to share that much information in the first place. Please don’t assume what their life was like before being in the system.

Don’t Ask Us About Money Matters

Okay, it isn’t always inappropriate to discuss finances. However, some people hold the assumption that foster parents make money by taking care of the kids. First of all, they’re not babysitters, and fostering isn’t for profit. There is no monetary gain to it.

While the state may provide some funds for the child’s needs, it isn’t always enough. Some parents will have to shoulder some expenses personally. Foster care isn’t or shouldn’t be something people get into to make money.

Don’t Tell The Kids They’re Lucky To Have Foster Parents

Children in the system, even with caring foster families, are far from “lucky.” It can be quite tone-deaf to say that they are such.

Imagine strange adults coming into your home one day and taking you from your parents. You have no warning, and you have no idea what’s going on. These strangers then bring you to other people you don’t know. They then tell you that these unfamiliar adults will be taking care of you from now on. That doesn’t sound like such a lucky situation anymore.

You can be happy that they’ve found a compassionate family to live with temporarily. However, this toxic positivity can be harmful, pressuring people to be cheerful or find a silver lining.

“Just like something that is done in excess, when positivity is used to mask or silence the human experience, it becomes lethal. By not allowing the existence of certain feelings, we fall into a state of denial and repressed emotions,” explains Jamie Long, PsyD.

Don’t Tell Us We Should Adopt The Kids

Unfortunately, not everyone understands that there’s a difference between fostering and adopting. A kid in foster care does not automatically go through the process of adoption. Being a foster child can be a temporary arrangement. Their legal guardian also maintains full parental rights over their kids. These children can then later go back to their biological families.

You shouldn’t tell foster parents to adopt the kids because this decision isn’t up to them. They don’t get to decide whether they can do so, or even if they’ll be up for adoption first place. It may also give the children a false sense of hope. It can even cause distress for them, thinking that they’ll never see their biological family again. 

Don’t Ask Us If We Can Bring Them Back

Keep in mind that you’re talking about a human being, not an object you can return to a store. These kids may have issues and troubles, but those challenges should never be a reason to get rid of them.

Foster children need someone to stand by them and look after the mental health of your foster child, even when they act up. It’s also the same for someone’s biological kids. You wouldn’t put them up for adoption because you have difficulty dealing with them, would you? Why should kids in foster care be any different?

Don’t Offer Unsolicited Advice

Unless someone asks for advice, it isn’t always polite or appropriate to offer it up. Such is true even in situations when someone is dealing with their biological kids. Everyone has their parenting style, and kids will react and receive it differently. What may work for your family may not be the best for another.

Don’t Tell Us How Difficult It Must Be

Trust us; foster parents already know how challenging their situation can be. There are several rules they have to follow. There’s also the attachment they might feel and the hurt when their foster kids go back. Raising children is a trial in general. They don’t need a reminder.

Instead of talking about how it might be difficult for them, discuss something helpful instead. Ask about how you can help around. Let your friends vent about their problems and struggles as a foster family.

Conclusion: Discussing Foster Families

It’s best when people make an effort to learn more about fostering. It’s also helpful to read up on things that may be inappropriate to say to these families. Things like talking negatively about biological parents, calling the kids lucky, and talking about making money are colossal no-no’s. If you’re ever unsure what may be insensitive, you can always ask if it’s okay to know.

 

 

The 2019 Children’s Fair was an enjoyable and fruitful conference for the attendees. Aside from the different activities, there were also inspirational talks given by experts concerning dealing with children.

Continue reading “Loving And Supporting Our Children”

I am a mother of five kids. Two of them are biological, while the other three are adopted. My husband and I decided to adopt for the first time when I did not think that I could bear a child. We had been married for seven years at the time, but no fertility method was working. So, we decided to ask orphanages about the possibility of adopting a baby.

That’s when we found Michael, our first son. I fell in love with his curly hair and big eyes as soon as I saw him, and the adoption process started right away. Miraculously, a year after that, I got pregnant with twins, so my husband and I felt very blessed.

A couple of years later, though, the head of the same orphanage where we got Michael contacted us. She commended us first for raising the boy fantastically and then talked about twin babies who were left outside their gate. She said, “It would be incredible if we could find a home for the two of them.” After a long conversation with my husband, we decided to drive down to the orphanage. Given the number of kids that I mentioned above, well, you know that we took those babies in and cared for them like our own.

Now, the story of Michael and the young twins is not rare. There are plenty of abandoned, abused, or orphaned children across the globe who need to love and feel loved. Thus, as someone who has adopted three kids, I worry about the foster care system worldwide, especially now that there is a coronavirus outbreak.

Here are some things I have learned.

Fewer Kids May Get Adopted Legally

Adoption sounds like an easy task for outsiders, but that’s not true at all. Besides your lack of interest in hurting the child in any way, the judges determine if you can handle another kid financially.

Because of the lockdown, though, a high number of individuals cannot go to work. Even if someone has savings, it may not suffice to pay the bills, get groceries, and hire a lawyer to process the adoption papers. The result is that the legal adoption comes to a halt and may only resume when everything goes back to normal again.

More Parents Have Been Reported For Child Abuse

The lockdown that prevails in many countries has put adults in an awful place, mentally speaking. Being cooped up in the same house for days can make you cranky or snappy. If a person has some form of addiction, anger management problem, or other issues, it is not surprising for them to become violent towards the children under their care. It explains the rise of child abuse cases everywhere and pushes the court to deny such people’s requests to adopt kids.

The Silver Lining: Deserving Parents In Canada Don’t Need To Wait For The End Of Lockdown Before Getting The Adoption Papers Approved By The Court

I read a touching article the other day about a Canadian couple who were trying to adopt a baby girl. Their court appearance got postponed due to the lockdown, but the kind judge allowed them to do everything through a video conference. Before the call ended, therefore, the baby girl became their daughter legally.

My research is admittedly not extensive enough to know if the other countries intend to follow suit. However, this new process ensures that deserving parents need not wait any longer before their adoption papers get signed by a judge. The more it happens, the more kids can grow up in a nurturing home.

Final Thoughts

It breaks my heart as a parent to know that there are children in the world who need to wait longer before getting adopted due to COVID-19. It pains me more, though, that some foster parents turn violent because of the situation. The latter leaves the child hurt and homeless.

My only prayer at this point is that the foster care system in every part of the globe will be as good as the one in Canada. This way, the kids and their adoptive parents can all live blissfully.

Adopting or fostering a child (or teenager) will take a great deal of support from your “village” and knowledge about attachment, trauma, and patience. — Támara Hill, MS, NCC, CCTP, LPC

Deciding if you are ready to become a foster parent might be exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. Fostering a child is not an easy way of life. It is something that will change you and your perspective indefinitely. To consider your choices, here are some pros and cons of becoming a foster parent.

Cons Of Becoming A Foster Parent

Social Workers May Not Tell You Everything

As a foster parent, you have to learn how to provide for your child. This aspect of foster parenting applies to their physical, mental, and emotional health.

However, social workers may not give you complete information about the child’s needs. This lack of data can leave you confused and lost. Take note that it is crucial to inquire about everything. No bit of information is too trivial for your child’s sake.

Judgment From Other People

People are quick to judge, and you might receive unwanted attention. Questions, comments, and stares can test your strength. Aside from that, social workers will also check and see if you are suitable enough for childcare. The best way to deal with judgment is patience, a sense of humor, and determination that you want to care for the child.

Trust Goes Both Ways

Many children under foster care came from abusive families. To foster a child means you have to consider this fact. They might not trust you at first because they are in a foreign environment. You have to be patient in providing stability in their lives.

Leaving Your Home

In some cases, the child will leave their foster homes and go back to their birth parents. This situation varies at any given time. The level of trust you have with the child, their legal representative and their birth parent is essential. If this scenario occurs, you have to learn how to let go and hope for the best.

Families who are parenting children from hard places need to develop skills for how to parent children with trauma histories and attachment difficulties. — Jamie D. Aten Ph.D.

Pros Of Becoming A Foster Parent

Helping Children Who Need A Home

Irresponsibility runs rampant all around the world. As a result, some children are born in unfair situations. Becoming a foster parent allows you to change that. You will be able to provide a positive influence for children and be the change this world needs.

Aid Is By Your Side

You do not have to bear the responsibility all alone. Once you become a foster parent, there will be various resources and support for your family. There is training provided for learning how to raise a foster child. Monetary compensation is also given to help you get started. Depending on the state you live in, there will be benefits such as free grocery supplies and school lunch programs.

Foster Parenting Can Be Rewarding

There is no better feeling than witnessing your child grow under your care. Your unrelenting patience, determination, and love will come to fruition. When it does, it will give you a sense of accomplishment as a parent. The experience of foster parenting is unforgettable, and you will get rewarded for your efforts.

Researchers discovered the key ingredient to successful parenting is how well the parents work together and support each other as a couple. — Rick Nauert PhD

Being a foster parent is a blessing and an opportunity that will change you. Your view on life, love, and family are guaranteed to change. It will be worth it, despite the hardships. You will realize that at the end of this experience, you and your child have grown to become better.

From apps that chart fetal development during pregnancy to those that track a newborn’s feeding and sleeping schedules, parents can follow and document virtually every aspect of their young one’s growth effortlessly — all on their smart phone or other devices. — Susan Newman Ph.D.

Technology is improving our lives in terms of organizing everything. It also includes the way you, as a parent, handle your whole family, especially your children.

Today, countless parenting applications can guide you in every element and aspect of being a parent. Here are some of the best parenting apps you can download on your devices this 2020.

Baby Connect

Being a parent of a baby is never easy. There are a lot of things running in your mind. These include when to feed them, what their sleeping schedule is, when their next doctor’s appointment is, and whose turn it is to take care of the baby.

With Baby Connect, it is now more convenient for you to organize both short-term and long-term tasks for your child. What’s good about this program is its simple and intuitive user interface.

Cozi

Cozi is suitable for co-parenting needs. Different features make it stand out. For one, it allows both parents to share their calendars and photos and create to-do lists together. This strategy is a way for them to manage both their home and work tasks better.

What’s unique about Cozi is that it allows the users to store and share the recipes of their favorite meals. It is a handy tool for whoever is in charge of cooking in the household for a day.

Baby Sleep Sounds

Are you tired of carrying your baby and lulling them to sleep while having to sing to them at the same time? Well, you don’t have to worry anymore. Baby Sleep Sounds are one of the most unique and useful apps out there. It offers a variety of soothing sleep sounds and lullabies that you can play while making your baby sleep.

Aside from this, it also has a timer and a night light feature that you can set if you’re not beside your child.

Even when stress hormones are revving us up, calming takes place when another person is empathic, attuned, and non-judgmental. Unconsciously received signals slow our heart rate and activate the parasympathetic nervous system. — Tom Bunn L.C.S.W.

Parenthood

The Parenthood app is perfect no matter how old your child is. It has unique features that no other app offers, such as tracking developmental milestones, perusing expert tips for the whole family, and accessing educational resources. Its dashboard also allows you to connect with other user parents from whom you can ask advice.

Parenting Apart

Parenting Apart is an app created by a well-known divorce coach and parent educator, Christina McGhee. The program aims to focus on emotional issues for children and parents instead of tackling parenting practicalities.

Some of its most significant features include adjustment issues, emotional phases, challenges in parenting apart, and other tips and inspiring stories from the creator. Consider this as a digital robot where you can get professional advice at any time.

Getting up, dressed, or going to bed are some of the everyday routines covered. An animated hourglass offers upbeat instructions to the children followed by victory music when they beat the timer. — Robert A. Lavine Ph.D.

ChoreMonster

ChoreMonster is an app that makes chores more fun and more engaging. Its goal is to monitor the chores of the kids and reward them for completing both their daily and weekly assigned tasks.

The tracking process lets the kids earn points per chore completed. They can use the points they accumulate to claim prizes such as an hour of TV screen time, a pint of ice cream, or extra video game time.

Whether you’re a parent-to-be or a parent of toddlers and teens, these parenting apps will be your best companion in this crazy and challenging ride. So, what are you waiting for? Download now!

The role of every parent is not an easy one because it always carries with it several problems and challenges. No matter how great you are as a parent, there will always come a time when you will feel lost about what you are going through. On top of all the things that you must do, other people expect you to be perfect at being a parent. Because of this, you may feel a lot of anxiety and stress. Do not fret for there are tons of options that you can do to beat all those negative emotions. In this article, we are going to share the smart ways on how to make it happen through the advice we received from an excellent psychologist.

Discipline is a touchy topic for many, especially because it requires so much from parents: persistence, tolerance (in the face of loud, out-of-control feelings), stepping into the unknown (a given), and faith (that discipline will work!). — Ben Ringler, MFT

 

Before we go into the details, we want to remind every parent like you that you play a crucial or vital role in the upbringing of your children. You must learn how to take responsibility in fulfilling all your duties because one wrong move can alienate your kids from you or even make them grow as rebels in society. You must learn how to give the right amount of love and understanding to your kids so that they can also cultivate a lifestyle that is full of happiness and greatness.

 

The primary focus of today’s article is concerning the significance of helping your child become a responsible member of the community. Make sure that you see to it that your children are highly disciplined at all times. Failure to do any of these acts can lead to severe problems in your part. Check the list below to find the methods on how to discipline a child:

 

Keep Your Cool

 

The initial step that you must do is to learn how to control yourself when it comes to dealing with your child. Take note that he is still young, which means that he does not know a lot of things in this world. You cannot expect him to function well if he can see that you can get out of control when you are mad. The best and ideal thing to do is to compose yourself at all times, especially during the moments when your little one seems to test your patience. Remind yourself that the more you calm yourself, the easier it would be for him also to calm himself.

 

 Consider the origins of the word “discipline.” It comes from the word “disciple,” which, of course, is a person who receives instruction from another person. Parents who have what I call a “punishment mentality” don’t teach their children to make positive changes in their behavior. — Jeffrey Bernstein Ph.D.

Use Positive Reinforcement

 

Another thing or idea that you may want to consider is to use the psychology of positive reinforcement wherein you will reward your child whenever he does something good. Make sure that the ultimate reward is commensurate with the good deed that he has done. Do not give something that can be overwhelming as it can send a negative signal to him. He will end up confused to the point that he will be clueless on what to do next. If you still feel that he has not improved through this method, it is best to change your strategies every now and then. Keep in mind that several experts have already concluded that this method works as long as you know how to apply it systematically.

 

Withdraw Privileges At Home

 

Whenever your child does something terrible, be sure that he also gets punished for it. Of course, you must not punish him physically or emotionally as it can affect your child’s mental health or state. What you must do is to slowly take away some of his rights and privileges so that you can teach him a lesson. For example, you can restrict the usage of gadgets at home whenever he talks back at you or whenever he does something outrageous to other people. Through this simple act, he will be reminded that what he did was wrong. Since something special was taken from him as a punishment, there is a good chance that he refrain himself from making the same mistakes.

 

Communicate With Your Kid

 

One of the things that many parents fail to do is to establish a real and positive communication line among their kids. Most adults assume that they already know their children, which is why they no longer feel the need to check up on the latter. If you think similarly, then there is something wrong with you. At this point, it is imperative to point out the fact that communication between parents and kids must be effective at all times. If you noticed something good about your child, make sure to let him know about it. Conversely, if you discovered something negative, let him know why it was erroneous.

 

People don’t just stumble upon good parenting. Parenting well, like any other skill in life, is something we learn not just through what we were taught when we were growing up, but by expanding our strengths and skills when we become parents ourselves. — Ben Martin, Psy.D.

Be a responsible parent starting today!