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Fostering or Foster Parenting means taking care of Children who have been abused, neglected or simply that their parents do not have the ability to take care of them. This can be due to illness or financial reasons.

Foster parenting differs from an adoption in the sense that the “parent” as such does not hold as much right over the child as they would to an adopted child. Many important decisions for the child are no longer in the hands of the foster parents, rather the social worker of the state decided on that. An adopted child is also a more lengthy process compared to having a foster child.

The foster care system, on paper is a “temporary” solution. It is a stop gap solution until the original parents can take care of their children again. This however is not true in a practical sense since in most cases the parents are unable to take back their children either due to death or permanent medical conditions.

There is a limit to the number of children a foster parent can “adopt”. This is to prevent too many children being looked after by just 2 parents. In practice though, it happens many times that there aren’t enough licensed foster homes and social workers are forced to place children under the care of already overwhelmed foster parents.

One must note that children who are taken into foster care are normally those that have been abused or neglected. This often results into negative behavior which remains a challenge for foster parents.