[KelleyF]

A friend of mine sent this article to me recently. I guess she thought I would find it to be ignorantly comical.
Study: Big gaps in foster vs. traditional homes - USATODAY.com

[tvs4]

UGH! there are so many things wrong with that article! First, many forster homes have more children in the home because THEY FOSTER!!! DUH! so, naturally there will be more kids if a family with their own 2.4 bios take in foster children. Also, they may have a lower income because again THEY FOSTER and many have a stay at home parent or are single parents which automatically decreases your family income by one income. This is so crazy!

It would have been a much more relavant study if you looked at kids in foster care and compaired the foster family income and ratio of children to the income and ratio of the families they came from - not to the whole US pool of families. It is really an unfair comparison.

Also, it seemed to equate income and family size directly to quality of parenting care. Which again isn't a fair comparison. I watch those Nanny 911 shows on TV and they have children who behave horribly and often live in very nice suburban, affluent homes ... so clearly money alone does not make for good parenting. Money can make some things easier - like findign quality childcare, being able to afford a safe home, being able to provide nutritious food, etc but it is not always a proxy for the quality of parental care children recieve in a home.

This article makes it seem like foster parents are a child hoarding folks who because they have less money take in kids for the money. it is so not the reality I know....

[TheMomma08]

I'm not sure where he does his research?!? I only know one foster family and the kids there live gooood. Better than many kids that come from traditional families. The foster mom is older and takes all of her kids to the water park on a weekly basis, as they have a family pass. Her house is beautiful and the kids do not go without.


The children are very happy there

[kxl164]

If this article were true what does it say about our society that mostly working class families take in foster kids. This article makes it sound like families who are a bit more comfortable choose not to take in foster children and leave that to the working class to handle.

I think this article was not well researched, and if it was it was limited in scope to look at one city/county/neighborhood.

At least in the end they say that foster parents are NOT in it for the money. We are just poor and uneducated and can offer these kids nothing more than their birthparents could. I didn't know that money/resources bought better parenting, news to me.

[Sam-N-Tony]

That article is digusting and what's more disgusting is the comments that some people wrote. Is that what people really think of us. I think its selfish of them to even think that we are in it for the money and we get everything handed to us.

Since we are all uneducated and poor, I guess we are doing an even more injustice to our foster kiddos. We should just leave them with their parents that abandon them, don't feed them for days, beat them, sell them for sex, they would be in so much better hands with their parents then us uneducated poor foster homes.

[AngelArrow]

I think the article is very bias. The foster care population is very heterogenus incluting the foster parent population. It was a vey poor comparision to compare normal what ever normal is these days to kids in foster care and the people that take care of them. A much better comparision would have been in my view kinshipcare vs Foster care or children that live in grouphomes all over the united states vs in fosterhomes this would have been a better income comparision plus education of care givers, training and so forth. What the author is saying in my view is to do to the lack of education and poverty people become foster parents to better his/her income and further disadvandage these children even more, but the author forgot that these children are already disadvandaged do to his/her socio economical status prior coming in the child welfare system and then in the system these kids get further disadvantaged to due multiple moves, changing schools and so forth.

[BethanyB]

I adopted both of my kids from foster care and I don't make a whole heck of a lot of money. I'm single and I'm a teacher so I don't make a lot of money. But I have a cute house with a fenced in yard in a nice neighborhood. The kids always have enough food - they eat me out of house and home or so my Grandma says. They have the best clothes and toys. They don't have a membership to the pool, we stay in the baby pool or hot tub in the backyard. Things are tough raising two kids but they live a typical middle class lifestyle. They would not have lived that way had they been left with their bio family unfortunately. Maybe they are going only on numbers here but my litttle old salary buys them everything they need and they are very happy. It's sad that an article would suggest that our kids are not better off with us.

[Heyheather]

This really bugs me! There are so many misconceptions about foster parents. My DH is an eye doctor and I have a master's degree in nursing and I get so many weird comments. For instance - doesn't your DH make enough that you have to take in foster kids. What ?!?!?
Another one - aren't you wasting your education taking care of so many kids? (nope)

Foster parents aren't in this for the money and people in all socioeconomic classes can provide so much for foster kids.

[xxsurroundedbyxy]

Well, here you have to have a high school diploma to foster so that throws the whole "uneducated without a even a high school education" out the window. My husband had 3 years of college and I have been an elementary teacher with a master's degree for 6 years so that blows their theory as well.

Now that we foster, I am on hiatus from teaching. So on paper we do look rather SLIM.....but we have a nice house and own our vehicles and I work one day a week as the Children's Storytime Director at the local library which is more than enough with my husband's salary to make ends meet.

More importantly, kids in our home are never left unattended or with people we don't know (like our last biomom did to our FS). We are not alcoholics or drug addicts (like all three of our last bioparents). We have a routine and stability in our home which allows regular school attendance and better grades.

So, I'd love to see WHERE and WHO these people sought out to come up with the research for their "study".


Kim

[tvs4]

I also agree that the uneducated part sounds off. I have 2 undergrad and 2 masters degrees and my husband had a PhD. We are foster parents ... I know we might an the exception and might be a bit "over educated" but you'd think we'd help swing the median back the other way!

As for the money comments, we were accused by family members of trying to do an ICPC for another family member's child to "get the money". HAH! Honestly, you'd think with all our advanced degrees we could come up with a much easier way to make an extra $250 a month ! When my husband heard from his uncle that we were into foster care for the money his response was "them's fightin' words!"

[wannafostersoon]

Uneducated? Poor? Where are these people getting their data?! I am inclined to believe most people who are actively fostering are professionals with post- high school educations and current or former careers. Of course on paper these families may be of lower income~ the more people in your family the higher the poverty income guidelines are. Since foster board payments are not considered income it is very possible that a professional family that fosters with one stay at home parent and 3 bio plus 2 foster children will be considered lower income than their counterparts with the same income, same number of biological children and no foster children. That's just common sense.

I do believe there is some validity in the statement that social workers want to keep children with their relatives or within their same community but that doesn't always equate to putting them in a poverty stricken home. It's likely quite the opposite. We all have family members who aren't doing as well as the majority, but those one or two struggling family members are hardly representative of the entire family nor their community as a whole.

[vernellinnj]

Didn't get to read the whole article but I got the gist. I will say this...no one that I know with my education (Bachelor's Degree and Master's Certification not degree from GWU) and type of professional career fosters.

[BethanyB]

Education and money are two different things as well. I am educated. I have a bachelors degree in Elementary Education and Fine Arts. I am on my way to my masters in reading specialty. I am a foster mom but being a teacher I don't make a lot of money. We live the middle class life and I get a subsidy for the kids since they are sibs and considered special needs. Foster families come from all walks of life.

[vernellinnj]

Originally Posted by BethanyB

Education and money are two different things as well. I am educated. I have a bachelors degree in Elementary Education and Fine Arts. I am on my way to my masters in reading specialty. I am a foster mom but being a teacher I don't make a lot of money. We live the middle class life and I get a subsidy for the kids since they are sibs and considered special needs. Foster families come from all walks of life.

I agree, we do come form all walks of life. Just speaking of my personal experience and the fact that I, personally, know no one who fosters that's like me. Doesn't make me any more or lesss special than my friends or other foster parents.

[wannafostersoon]

I have noticed a trend where a lot of teachers, nurses, military, etc., (perfectly middle class professionals) are fostering. I am not really seeing much on either extreme as far as those who are very low income or very high income doing it. That was the point I was trying to make.

As someone mentioned, education and income don't necessarily directly correlate. I am just an LPN. Diploma, no degree.. I make between $20-33 per hour depending on the case I work. When I sit my RN boards in September and (*if) I pass I will be a BSN. I will make no more than I am making now. My best friend has her bachelor's degree and barely makes $15 an hour in Manhattan. My husband has a high school diploma and some college courses but no actual degree. He blows my income and that of those who I know that have much higher degrees than I could even think about attempting out of the water completely. In short, the entire premise of the article is severely flawed.