[DayintheLife]

I have a 16 year old, pregnant teenager, arriving on Monday. Any advice? I've fostered before but none over age 5. I teach high school for at-risk youth so I have an idea what I am in for, but I have no idea how to peacefully live with a teen!

Any suggestions for rules, welcoming, getting her to school, etc. would be much appreciated!

[Heather5458]

I too work with high risk youth and have to tell you good luck I could not do it. I would however suggest you set some very specific rules so you are both on the same page...I know one of the successful teen homes here by me is only successful because they have a 5 page "contract" they go over when a new youth enters their home. I also know I was asked by a youth leader the other day what my thoughts were on the teens in her home smoking pot.....so where specific rules may be obvious to some they are not to all. Good luck!

[stevenstwin]

I guess their all different, so you have to kind of play it by ear. My long-term FS was 14 when he came to me. I started with pretty basic rules, and then had to add and adjust as we went on - things I hadn't really thought of before (mostly little stuff like food in the room, volume of tv/video games, etc). I think you'll have to wait to see what she's like to even find out if getting her to school is a problem, etc. I'd go with "these are your chores, this is your curfew," and a few other fairly broad ones. Take the first little while to get to know here and try to do some fun stuff together - my kid LOVED video games, so he played a lot of those with my husband and daughters. I also suffered through stuff on tv that did NOT interest me at all (WWF, anyone??) to build a bond :-)

[Sissy22]

How's it going I have a 16 yr old girll and have done the teen mom think w/former foster children . let me know if you need anything.