Why are foster parents unable to admit that most of them only do it for money and are basically babysitters?

Show all answers

Post your answer

mvpunker07	wow you have a really screwed up view there kid. I know of many families who have adopted children so they can live and be raised in a good home. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Gina	I personally don't feel the need to defend my character or reasons for fostering to you. I'll leave that up to whoever p!ssed in your Cheerios this morning. I do hope you feel better after this little rant, however; I'm certain you didn't expect an actual answer from such a question. :) Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Mom to Foster Children	WTF - I totally resent this and in no way are YOU able to make a decision on WHY I chose to foster / adopt my son! Where in the hell do you get your findings because I would love JUST LOVE to see your statistics! Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

TerraMere	I am sorry if that was your experience with foster care or foster parents. My only experience with foster care is the foster parents I know which is a handful. All of them are loving people who definitely do not do it for the money. The amount paid per child is simply not enough in our state cover the cost of adequately raising a child. That is not to say that some people don't foster for money but I just don't think that is all or even most. I feel sorry for the kids that get stuck with those placements or any other bad situation. It isn't right but I know it does happen. Take care. ~T Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Shylo	And you know this to be fact because......? I'm sorry if you are in the foster care system or once were and ended up in the minority of foster care homes that does work that way. However ALL foster parents are NOT of this frame of mind and do foster children out of a love for children and not the monthly pentance. Most foster parents are doing something special they don't just think they are. And if your going to make generalizations you should also heap the adoptive parents in there too. After all when you adopt a child the state still pays you every month for that child as if it were in foster care until the day the child turns 18. So are adoptive parents the same uncaring money hungry monsters too? Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Devin N	not all of them do it for the money and honestly it isn't alot of money for what they deal with Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

cmc	If they do it only for money they should wise up. There are jobs that pay better. I have seen some that think it is a business, but the vast majority from my experience do it because they care about kids. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Wundt	First, this just isn't true of many foster parents. I know an older couple who don't need the money (they just spend the reimbursement directly on the kids) who have fostered over 250 kids, most of them 'special needs'. Second, if a person becomes a doctor 'just for the money', does that mean that when they save your life it doesn't matter? Just because you do something for a paycheck, doesn't mean what you do isn't important and makes lives better. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Tsunami	well that is not true. sometimes there are some that do it for the money yes but not all of them some of them truly love the kids and are there for you and i know it seems hard to believe but they are there for you. they want you to grow and become a good citizen. you just have to be lucky to find them i hope you do. i know you must have a really bad foster home but you can also get rid of it and try again. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Heather Leigh	I will agree with you in part. SOME people foster children just for the money, but any GOOD foster parent knows if you are doing it right, you will not make a dime off it. I also babysat children when my kids were little. I made a hell of a lot more then because I was not responsible for the day to day needs of those children. I was not responsible to clothe them; I was not responsible for providing a roof over their heads. I was not responsible for their daily needs once they left my care. Foster parents and babysitters have many similarities, but with babysitting you can send the kids home to their parents at the end of the day and know they are in good hands. With Fostering it is 24/7. Maybe instead of lumping all Foster parents into one group, you can help find a way to fix a really screwed up system. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Chunner	I suppose that as the children are likely to be taken away at any time then they really are just some kind of babysitters, and should therefore get payed for it. It`s very difficult to be anything more than simply caring in that situation I understand your emotion but what good would it do either of you if you got too close? It`s a siht world kid, and for my part in it I`m sorry. I went through the same, it hurts don`t it? ..........and ignore, all the know all, sod alls. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Yarr	Because they aren't... most of they time they don't get near enough money to pay for all the kid's expenses... Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

chris_cat	I'm pretty sure the ones who do it for money 1) are idiots because financially, there is NO profit and 2) would have no trouble admitting the reason they're in it. By the way, I teach at a public elementary school and have NEVER met a foster parent who was "in it for the money." Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

♥♥Rita♥♥	Hahaha......not much money in it my friend, unless you stack 'em in like cord wood. The headache of dealing with all the crap that comes along with being a foster parent severly limits any monetary sum one may expect to gain....and then if they really take care of the kids...well, no money left over. The good foster parents take money out of their own pocket when the monthly foster parent is gone to make it through the rest of the month. I think you have a rash...... Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

tricia123	I'll tell you my take on that, I know there are some out there that do it because they want the money and really don'tt care about the kids. BUT I also know that there are others out there that do it because they want to make a difference in achild'ss life, they want to help make their (the child's) life better in some way or at least show them that adults do care. Now as for the glorified babysitter comment. Sometimes you do feel like that, especially when you go to court and find out that no matter what you say about how the child acts after a visit etc.. that things aren't going to change. visitations will stay the same or increase etc.. the caseworkers and others say that its normal behavior that the child is displaying blah blah blah... you are just taking care of the child while their parent(s) get there act(s) together or atleast attempt to. We were told that they put the child first and what is in the best interest of the child But when you are the foster parent who is up all night with the crying child who is scared and who yells at you "NO" "It hurts" "stop" when you try to change their diaper. Or you are the one who sits there and holds this same child for hours after a visit because they say" no more" "go home now" and you feel so helpless because you know that you have to take them to yet another vistit and another visit after that. THIS IS NOT a glorified babysitter and there is no amount of money in the world that even comes close to making it any better. for you or them. I will also say that the amount of money they give you is not as much as you apparently think it is, it does cover most of the costs of what you need to use to suport the child but I can tell you that we spend more than the amount we get a month from our own pockets as do other foster parents who are doing it for the children and not the money. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Nicole	Gee I don`t see you saving the world.... Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

aloha.girl59	Wow. That's what I am? A babysitter? Please don't tell my son. He'd be heartbroken because he thinks I'm his mom. I was a foster-to-adopt parent. I adopted my son through foster care. For 23 months, from my son's ages of 2-1/2 to 4-1/2, I was his foster mother. I did a whole heck of a lot more for him than a babysitter would and I wasn't paid nearly what a babysitter would make. Let's figure it out, shall we? There are 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. I worked part time after I brought my son home, so that's about 147 hours a week that he was in my care (I'm subtracting for preschool 3 days a week at 6 hours a day). Multiply that by 4 (the average number of weeks in a month) and you get 588 hours per month that I was with my son. The check we got from DCFS at that time was $425/month, which works out to be a whopping $0.72 per hour that I was "paid." Oh, wait! I had to buy him food and clothes and toys and medicine too. Bummer. That really put a dent in my "salary." Oh, so you say it doesn't count because I planned to adopt my son? Then let's look at his foster parents before me. They were lovely people in their early 50s who had 5 foster children living in their home. They probably got $425/month for each of those children as well, which works out to be $2125/month. Not enough to make even a house payment in most parts of California (which is where they lived). Certainly not a house and a car payment. Yet all of these children had full bellies and beautiful clothes. They were all well taken care of and they were loved. It was obvious from the way that the children talked and behaved around their foster parents in my presence. Most of them were too young to know how to 'put on an act,' so I believed what I saw. They were the primary caretakers for my son for the first two years of his life and he was a happy, healthy, well-adjusted little boy. There was 1 TV in the house and no video game system. There were lots of bikes and pedal cars and things to do outside. There were pet rabbits and some horses down the street that the kids liked to pet and feed. They went to the park and to movies and had birthday parties. The foster children were included in family activities as the foster parents had biological children and grandchildren that visited often. The house was small but clean and there was a large van they used to take the older kids to school and to activities. Somehow I don't think these people were living large on $2 grand a month. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Hook	wow you make me luagh Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

ditzee_nikki2006	Some do for money, some do because they care. There are good people out there. Some foster parents are loving people that want to help children in need. Sure there are greedy money seekers but thats not everyone. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

cantstopLinnyG	I guess for the same reasons all adoptees hate adoption and their adoptive parents. Or the same reasons all adoptive parents kidnapped their kids. Or the same reason all first Moms are crack whores. I wish people would just ignore these kinds of questions. They do nothing but incite riots. But then again..I just did. 2 points. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Bodhi	I was a Foster Care Social Worker, so I knew a lot of Foster Parents - and I had to get into the nitty gritty with them, so I had a pretty good idea of whether or not they were in it for those kids, or whether they just wanted that check. Of the 60 or so (I can't remember exactly how many) cases I had, there were 3 Foster Parents I had serious reservations about regarding this issue; 1 additional couple made a comment about "how great the extra money is" (side note: it shouldn't be 'extra' - that should be going towards the care of the child). I heard many, many times that the money wasn't nearly enough, though. So really, 3 out of 60. That's only 5% - certainly not "most". And this was in a large, very depressed midwestern city where a lot of people need money. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

xplicit_524	they dont get that much money.. depending on the case.. it wouldn't be worth it for the money to take care of a baby.. that's ridiculous... Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

P C	raising a kid every day for years is not babysitting. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

R	Because most of them don't especially if they are not in a big city the payments are almost nothing. Only the bad ones make the news and is shifts the view Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

shellymay369	Because they are doing something special. You shouldn't put others down because you feel pathetic about your own life. Just because your shallow and would only do if for the money doesn't mean that other people are the same. Alot of foster parents do it because they actually want to help. Now sure there are some that may only do if for the money but you can't say that about all of them. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Randy B	Funny guy. Do you ever generalize much? If I was in it for the money, how come it cost me more then they gave me to look after the child? I would respectfully suggest you at least get your facts straight before you try to insight people with baseless claims. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

farm mom of 10	I'm a foster parent, and I've also run a home day care, did it for years. Let me tell you, if I was going to babysit children just for the money, I'd go back to the home day care. I made a LOT more money, and the kids went home at night and I got weekends off! Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

pauliewalnutz87	thats a generalization Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Rowan	I've known 1 foster parent like that, the others did it because they actually wanted to help children in need. i would like to be a foster parent someday, and i know i wont be doing it for the money. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

IDK!!	I think babysitters make more. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

sweetheart	You are so RIGHT!!I am a foster parent,and when we go to meetings it is shocking to hear how many people are talking about money and wanting the state to buy things they should be providing!!!It isn't suppose to be about money AT ALL!!!Its suppose to be about helping the CHILDREN!!!Its also so sad that a lot of foster parents will have their children in everything but put foster children in NOTHING!!Very sad!There is no excuse for it because I know for fact they let you pay by mth for somethings,because we have done it for almost every child thats been in our home! HUH Sorry,but it really upsets me that the ones that are like that kinda make all foster parents look bad!Nott All foster parents are like that!!Most of us do for the children only!! Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No