Across Britain thousands of children are unable to live with their birth families for many different reasons. Although still in close contact with family, they remain within the care system and want nothing more than a family home to be safe in. Could you be just who they are looking for? If you are unsure let’s look at some unique qualities all foster parents need.

Great parents of all kinds find they communicate easily with children and are able to see the world through a child’s eyes, enabling them to value and understand a child’s past experience.

They can empathise with the range of difficulties the children may have gone through, hence need to be adaptable and emotionally resilient. It’s important here to mention the willingness to be a ‘Life Long Learner’, and know when to ask for support. The range of support is massive and is there to help you be the best you can for the children.

Obviously, you need to have space in your life, and in your home, especially where fostering of siblings is concerned. Some empty nesters find their house rattling with their own children having left home, so offering those rooms and their hearts to kids in need is the perfect answer.

Offer a home to some incredible children
Evidently you will need lots of patience, to be sensitive and have loads of energy, and it’s also important to be honest about your weak spots – after all, no one is perfect and if you have great support around you, you’d be amazed at what you can achieve.

All foster carers are blessed with an innate generosity of spirit, a warm, loving energy that fills a child, imbuing them with confidence – a vital part of the family experience. Your experience, whether as a parent or in caring for other children, as a friend or relative, will be valued in the foster parent role. After all, kids don’t come with a manual!

The most important quality for anyone considering fostering long-term is ‘stickability’ – the ability to remain committed to your child through good and bad. Accepting that the ride is unlikely to be smooth, and that these children will be challenging as a default, will prepare you well to be a brilliant parent. If you can accept ‘what is’ rather than having some glowing vision of ‘a perfect family’, and know that your job is to be a parent – yes, it is a job with responsibilities, consequences and rewards – then you are likely to make an awesome foster parent.

Anyone over 18, male or female, single or a couple, can foster. Sexuality, race, and even disability are no barriers. If you are strong, stable and willing, then you can apply to offer a home to some incredible children looking for stability and love. And what could be better than that?

More information is available on the website below, as well as details of children currently looking for a family. Who knows, one of them may just be looking for you!

www.bemyparent.co.uk