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This will be my final blog for the month since the rest of the month will be knee deep in the ATN Conference, getting home and adding some respite kids to the household.
I am reading a book about being a stay-at-home mom. It’s called “Celebrate Home: Encouragement and Tips for Stay-At-Home Parents” and it’s got some really good information in it, and one part that I thought foster parents could really relate to, even though it’s not about foster parenting.
It’s in the first chapter, and it’s a small section called “Letting Go of the Wheel.” It’s about what happens when you leave the workplace to stay home with your kids. When you have a job that you get paid for, you also get recognition, praise and accolades along with it. This doesn’t always come in the form of verbal praise or recognition, but you do get raises and possibly promotions. What do you get when you’re a foster or adoptive parent?
How many people tell you that you’re doing a great job? Do your kids thank you for taking care of them? Does your partner thank you for staying home with the kids? Do you get a nice big pay increase? Do you get a promotion? Do you go to lunch with clients and dine in nice restaurants? If only.
This may be one of the hardest parts of our job. We don’t go into this for all the praise and glory, because after all, there really isn’t any. What we do get is the joy and satisfaction of helping kids and knowing that we have made a difference in their lives.
There’s the poem by Forest Witcraft that just about everyone has heard:
One hundred years from now
It won’t matter
What kind of car I drove
What kind of house I lived in
How much money I had in the bank
Nor what my cloths looked like
BUT
The world may be a little better
Because, I was important
In the life of a child.
That is where we get our reward.
But…… Some days you really would like someone to tell you you’re doing a great job, and I’m not talking about the people who say “You’re doing such a great thing. I could never do that.” Instead it would be nice to have your partner say thank you or to feel truly appreciated for what you do.
Here is my thank you for all you are doing to help very special kids.
