Foster Kids | Teen Ink

Foster Kids

January 28, 2016
By NayannaDarden BRONZE, Springfield, Ohio
NayannaDarden BRONZE, Springfield, Ohio
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

In the United States foster care started with the English Poor Laws in the 1500s allowing poor children to live in foster care until they became adults. This practice was imported to the United States and it marked the beginning of placing children. Foster care permitted the children to be treated unfairly and the foster care parents benefited from their work. It was better than the almshouses where children didn’t learn a trade and were exposed to unsanitary conditions and abusive caretakers.

My first reason I think that foster kids are treated differently than their foster parents biological kids is because in the 1500s foster parents were aloud to abuse their foster kids and why was that fair to the foster children

In the 1500s children were only placed in the foster homes because their parents were deceased not because they had been abused or that their parents couldn’t take care of them. Abuse was largely socially accepted and legal throughout the 1500s. But, today foster children are usually fostered because of abuse.
My other reason why I think foster kids get treated differently is because I think when foster kids get put into people’s homes that already have biological children, the foster child/children get treated differently than the foster parent’s biological son/daughter.

  I think this because during the summer time I had a friend and I went and hung out with her and her foster sisters like almost everyday. One day when I walked over there her foster mom was in the house with her biological son it was weird how she acted toward the foster girls. While she was talking to her son she acted very high or above she maybe even acted like he was better than the girls . She acted as if the girls were “mini slaves” she kept making them do stuff that she usually doesn’t make them do. She made them wash their own clothes and I was thinking some of the girls here aren’t even old enough to wash their own clothes they probably don’t even know how to do that with them being so young. But she made them do it anyways you could tell she was acting very impatient with the girls.  The girls and I talked to each other like why is she acting like this around her son they felt different like outcast.  I didn’t know what to say I was surprised the girls actually spoke on their foster moms actions because they all looked at her as “Mom.”

The last reason I think foster kids get treated differently is because I was reading an article (see link below) and it stated that younger foster children and older but mostly younger can get overwhelmed of being taken out of their homes and not being with their biological parent(s) anymore.

Sometimes foster parents can tend to get irritated with the foster children because they don’t feel the pain that foster children could be/is feeling. The foster children can start missing their families and start to not over react but to act out because they don’t know how to deal with the pain they are feeling.

That is why I think foster children get treated differently than biological children. If you are thinking about adopting a foster child you should be more aware of how you treat them. Most of the foster children are only looking for a loving parent/parents. So, if you are planning on adopting  a child/children you should always remember they aren’t any different than any one else, sometimes things are difficult to speak about like their past life (parents , siblings if they had any , and etc..). You should read Foster Parent Requirements and How To Foster A Child.


The author's comments:

My personal experience inspired me to write this article.


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