Unlike "traditional" parents, foster parents are required to take actual training in parenting and take it regularly. Some are boring. Some are fabulous.
A great training
Wow, today was great! I came home from the workshop reinvigorated with new hope and new ideas. Trainings like today are as energizing as the best cup of coffee on a slow morning. For starters it was great to be in a room full of people who understood some of what my days are like. A room of people who also have learned to take explosive outbursts, lack of attachment and affection, perhaps even smeared feces in stride. What an amazing group of people! The day would have been worth it just for the chance to connect over lunch and breaks with them, to swap ideas, share tricks, and commiserate over war stories. And the presenter was soo helpful! I can't wait to try some of the strategies in my home with my kiddos. I know they probably won't all work, and those that do work, may not work very long. But they give me a new beginning, a new card to play, another tack to take in helping this work more somoothly, more effectively. And, the day gave me new energy and new hope. A day well spent!
Excerpted from "The Caring Heart Speaks: Meditations for foster, kinship, and adoptive parents" by Gail Underwood Parker Artwork by Anna Parker David from the book cover.
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