Georgina and Vincent's Story

• Fostering Stories
• Tags: First step

We asked Georgina about her family's first year of fostering with us at our recent information event.

What brought you to fostering?

When our youngest child was around 3 or 4, my husband and I spoke about fostering but we weren't sure about how our daughter would react, so we put it on the back burner.

We know people tend to come back to fostering after years of thinking about it, and that's exactly what we did when our daughter was 8.  I now wish we'd taken that first step sooner because we've had absolutely the best year of our lives.

Why was it important to you to foster with local authority?

As soon as you look on the Internet and search for 'fostering', that's it - your phone is bombarded with private fostering agencies. However, when we did the research, it's about fostering for us, it's not about making a profit. It's about looking after a child.  No money in the world, can make you do this job if you don't want to do it!

It became apparent when a friend of mine went with a private organisation. She said, even though she got more money, there was no support there. And for me, support is the most important thing, and that's what we get.  The support and training that I get is second to none and having someone on the other side of the phone from the local authority was just the best thing for me and our family.

The location of the children was a huge factor, as I had my daughter's school run, so the child would need to be in the local area. The training providers are absolutely amazing. I've just been to a 10 week nurturing course with Anne.  The things that lady doesn't know are not worth knowing! 

How has fostering fit in with your daughter?

Before we were approved to foster, we met with the other people going through the assessment, and a couple of them were saying ‘we're not bothered about age’ which I felt really bad about because I've been thinking about it for many years.

We decided on children aged 4 to 8 as our preference, because I didn't want the pressure of an older child alongside our daughter, just because I didn't think it was the right fit for our family. 

Having a child younger than our own naturally kind of works that way, for the dynamics, it makes sense.

We've looked after 2 babies, then a 2 year old (only for 3 days), we also looked after a young boy aged 6 who we fell in love with, and we've a little lady now which started as a short term arrangement but now is moving to long term.

What have been the biggest rewards?

One of the little boys I had, he was fairly closed off and didn't want to speak. He thought by being naughty and doing things we didn’t like, he would get our attention. And then slowly but surely, we realised that all he needed was a little bit of TLC and a little bit of time. And then one time, he just held my hand out of the blue. That's just one simple reward that made my day, week, even year, just by him holding my hand.

What have the biggest challenges been?

The challenges for me are not necessarily the children, it was more about me adapting. I was in the army for many years so I’m very disciplined, whereas my husband is very laid back and his routine is very inconsistent due to his work commitments.  With my birth children from an early age, discipline was there, consistency was there, routine was there, so for me, I had to learn how to adapt my life around the children.

Every child that I've had just wants time, and little bit of TLC.  I needed to be a little bit more relaxed in situations, and a little bit less disciplined, as such. Over the year, I felt they have grown so much and I'm a lot more laid back and relaxed.  The children have taught me so much in life. As long as you keep them safe and give them a good home, that's all they want.