Most foster children often deal with unpredictability due to various factors. For this reason, they require stability in their lives when they are welcomed into a new foster home. As a foster carer who is looking for ways to create stability in your foster child’s life, there are many ways to do this. The benefits of doing so are endless, and they will be happier knowing they have a solid foundation for a new start. Here are some ways foster carers can create and provide this stability.
Create Routines
One way of ensuring stability in the life of a child in care is by creating routines for them. These routines will vary with the foster child and their age, and they can be as simple as doing their homework at an assigned time after school or getting to bed at a certain time.
Such routines are instrumental in eliminating the stress and anxiety children typically feel, especially at a new home. It also removes the uncertainty of not knowing what they should be doing at any time, giving them structure that helps establish stability in their lives.
Spend Time with Them
Another important thing foster carers should do is spend quality time with their foster children. Foster carers can make such time more impactful by ensuring their foster children feel secure and loved as they append time together. A child with strong bonds with a foster carer typically feels more secure because spending time with them shows them they are loved.
Foster carers can find activities their foster children love and find ways to do them together. It could be as simple as finding books you like reading together or even indulging in a new hobby or interest they enjoy.
Foster care agencies such as Fostering People encourage this by providing foster carers with an allowance covering the cost of these activities. Foster carers are able to present expense reports for activities the normal allowance could not cover.
Provide Emotional Support
Stress in a child’s life can affect numerous areas and introduce cognitive issues, such as impacting their executive function abilities. Because of this, foster children need additional support and guidance, especially when times get tough, such as when they are going through puberty.
Any way a foster carer can provide emotional guidance is welcome as it can get their foster child to start talking and expressing themselves, which is important for dealing with whatever is going on in their lives. They will also feel more secure and valued knowing their foster carer cares about their emotional state and well-being.
Give Them Some Independence
Letting them be a child is essential to creating stability in a child’s life. Kids feel more confident and are more likely to explore outside their comfort zone when they know their foster carer has enough confidence in them to let them do so.
Stability is critical to a child’s life. It is especially important for foster children who might not have had a stable and supportive environment. Remember that, in doing so, foster carers must always keep the needs of their foster children in mind to ensure they are doing right by them.
