What Else?

Since I started my research paper on foster care my feelings have changed mostly because I am now thinking more about the children and the long term affects that the children have because of being in foster care. I thought from the beginning that people should have their kids removed if they were not being the parent they need to be. In some cases that may be true but in a lot of cases it seems like even if the situation is not what you or I may believe is ideal that the child would not suffer numerous long term affects if they were able to stay with their families. Most of the children at risk of being removed from health and welfare already have some sort of dysfunction in the home, what makes us all think that removing them from their families will not just compound that dysfunction? In what circumstances should a child be removed? In what circumstances should they stay? What other alternatives should be available for the families that are deemed at risk? What kinds of programs would be beneficial for these families to achieve the growth that the government would find acceptable?

Annotated Bibliography

Wexlar, Richard. Wounded Innocents. New York: Buffalo, 1990. 186-187.
This book talks about what the author calls, “the war against children”. Wexlar describes how the war against child abuse has become the war against children. The book identifies numerous things that are wrong with our child protection services and supports those allegations by telling several stories of different families that have had their world shattered by our system.
I feel that this book is a well written book, and definitely goes into details on both sides of the families side. He gives examples of children that needed child protective services and they weren’t there, as well as the ones that had their lives shattered by removal.
I think that this book was useful to me and my research because it wasn’t a government fact sheet that had to appease the people. It dug deep into the not so pretty instances of child protective services breaking apart families instead of keeping them together.

Sure, you're fit to be a parent, but are you fit to be a foster parent?

Have you ever considered becoming a foster parent? Do you think that you are a great parent and being a foster parent would be a breeze? This is a common misconception among most people. What they don’t realize is that you are not only taking care of someone else’s child but also caring for a child of the state. If you leave the state, you have to have permission from the state, and the child’s biological parent. The days of just dropping the kids off at grandmas house are long gone unless grandmas house is a licensed foster home because that ward of the state can not be in any home that is not licensed by the state. You also can not take that child to do any extra curricular activities such as boating or horse back riding without the written permission from the biological parents. You know, the ones that were not fit enough to have the child living in their home. Am I the only one that thinks that is wrong?

Who's to blame?

How many families actually improve their situations by having their children removed from their homes? I wonder if it is an eye opening event that scares the parent enough to get their lives straight and actually make positive changes. Some say it takes drastic things to happen in order for people to pull themselves out of the habits that they have created. How many people do only what is expected to get their children returned, and then just revert back to old habits? I believe that numerous people live in denial and never take responsibility for their own actions and blame everyone else in their lives for the reason why they make the choices that they do. So many people seem to use the phrases “If only”, and “things would be different if”, they are always blaming someone else and never claiming ownership of their issues and problems.

Is removal right?

Is it right for a child to be uprooted from their home and placed in a foster home when their parents have done something that health and welfare deems unfit? What I wonder is if it would be better for the child to remain with the parent while that parent is under heavy observation from health and welfare. That way the child doesn’t get removed from their comfort zone of home, and in most cases their school to go live with strangers. I can’t help but feel that being removed like that causes emotional and psychological damage to that child that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives. When children are removed from their homes their parents are given a case plan to complete, once they complete all of those things the child can return home. Why not allow the child stay with their parent while they work on their case plan and avoid putting the child through all that stress.