The importance of acting your age

St Christopher’s foster carer Linda shares her experience of fostering siblings and helping a child to realise that her childhood is precious. This is following her foster child receiving an award at our annual fostering celebration of achievement for acting like a 10 year old rather than a grown up.

I was asked why acting like a 10 year old is so significant for our foster child and it is because at 10 years of age you should be having fun and spending time with friends and not being the mother figure and main carer to your younger siblings when you are just a child yourself. We hope she now realises that her childhood is precious and it is something that you can never get back.

Before she came to live with us she was experiencing a sub-standard quality of life, malnourished poor personal hygiene and severe neglect. Oh how she has changed. Since being placed with us she has become less defensive and allowed us to take over the reins where her two younger siblings are concerned. She takes pride in her appearance and has slowly begun to let herself enjoy life. Her confidence has grown alongside the trust she place in us.

We have shown her that she is worth a cuddle and she will now come and put her arms round you for a cuddle and will snuggle up beside us on the sofa. We have supported her in her choices -- after all it is her life and she should have a say in it. We have encouraged her to read as we explain that by reading you are educating yourself but in a fun way.

We feel we have given her the chance to have her childhood back and start to build her firm foundations from now. She knows she is valued. When she first arrived she struggled with the label of being in care, but we explained that we do not use the term foster. She asked us what LAC meant and we told her it sometimes stands for Looked After Children, but in our house it stands for loved and cherished. When a child so resistant tells you she loves you we feel the future is very positive.

If you would like to find out how you could make a difference to a young person’s life enquire about fostering with St Christopher’s.