Fostering The Love In Kansas

I remember when I was in kindergarten, 1st grade and having field day.  The running, potato sack races and tug of war. It was always how you celebrated the end of the school year and you got to be outside rather than in the classroom. This week, Little Man had his field day and I was so lucky to get to attend it.  Now, you all may remember Little Man and soccer.  He was super excited to do it but for only about 20 minutes.  The way the school set it up, the "upper classman" were manning all the stations and each class moved between 10 stations for roughly 2 hours.  As you can imagine, he lasted about 3 stations before he walked over to me and stood there asking to go home. Never mind, he still had the whole 2nd half of the day to do even after all 10 of the stations. I really had to get him back in the group but once he was focused and I started helping him through all of the stations, he had a blast.  And it brought back so many memories for me.  And it made me reflect o

Can we take a minute to talk about how expensive daycare is?  I mean, I know I want quality and safe daycare for Little Man. I want him engaged and learning. I want him to do things and expand his mind. But I don't want to pay for that. It's a horrible double standard.  I completely understand that I need to pay for what I want.  I guess I should say I CAN'T pay for that. I wish I could. What I also struggle with is finding good quality daycare that will take DCF payments.  It's hard to find and in my area.  There is this perception that DCF payments equate poor people.  But with the costs of daycare, your average person can't afford daycare all the time. The "nice part" of fostering, is that I do get help with daycare costs.  My agency pays roughly $2 an hour for daycare. Which is insanely low and doesn't cover much of the cost.  But it does help. When your average person, who doesn't have assistance, pays $150 a week...what does that leav

I have been a foster mom for 252 days (9 months) and this is what I have learned: 1. Not unlike a pregnancy, I feel like I've worked on this Little Man and have created a little person who is becoming so much of his own person. 2. Something has clicked in Little Man recently and he has become more affectionate, more talkative and has much more personality. 3. Someone (Little Man) has learned eye rolls (his own version) and while immensely humourous....I do not look forward to the major attitude that could be coming in his tween and teenage years. 4. It's amazing the imagination of children and to see Little Man playing, singing, and dancing to his own imagination is just so wonderful. He couldn't/wouldn't do that 9/8/4 months ago.... 5. The more time I have this wonderful little man, the more I realize that I can never come back from this. I am going to be forever changed from this.