It is often in the best interests of your foster child to maintain contact with their birth family. If so, you need to consider the best ways to facilitate what may be a challenging relationship for all involved. However, there are many benefits of maintaining a positive relationship with your foster child’s birth family as we will discuss below.
It Gives Them Continuity
It may be that your foster child can eventually return to their birth family. This can be made more difficult for them if they have lost contact, especially if they are young and may not remember their birth family very well. Maintaining contact with your foster child’s birth family can create continuity and therefore make the process of placing them back in their own homes when the time comes a lot easier for the family.
It Reduces Defiant Behaviour
A foster child may feel angry that they have been taken away from their family and this can cause battle lines to be drawn up. A child who feels they need to take the side’ of their family may see you as the enemy and this could lead to disagreements. However, if you show your foster child that you are working with their family to find the best route forward and support everyone involved, then you can help a child to see that you have their best interests at heart. This can help to calm any tensions.
It Gives Them Security
A foster child often feels insecure about their environment. This is especially the case if they have moved around several times. Maintaining a positive relationship with their birth family can make them feel more secure as they will not feel as if they are losing their own family or sense of identity by living elsewhere.
Maintaining a positive relationship with their birth family will help your foster child to settle in your care as they will not feel totally out of place and still have a sense of identity and belonging. It will help them to learn to trust you and feel settled in your care.
You Can Share Information
The more you can get to know your foster child, the better, as you will be able to understand them and know how to deal with any issues that arise. Most fostering associations such as fosteringpeople.co.uk will be able to give you some information about the child but they may not know them as well as their birth family does. The best way to do this is by maintaining a positive relationship with your foster child’s birth family. That way, you can share information and ideas which you will find helpful while you are caring for your foster child. Their birth family will be able to feel up-to-date about the life of their birth child which can improve their relationship and be useful for them if your foster child is returned to their care.
Maintaining a positive relationship with your foster child’s birth family is incredibly important for the child’s happiness and development even if the path doesn’t always run smoothly.
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