Ahhhh! Darrin Bell! Much respect for his work If you haven’t seen any, you should really check it out.
Posts have been slow (OK, non existent) for a couple of months. Hands full with IT issues.
Latest cartoon which I would say is about how we view the 6% of our population who have survived foster care.
One thing I’ve heard before – “What about the kids who NEED foster care?”
Well, what about them? Please, show me some kids who NEED foster care. I’ve never seen a kid who NEEDS foster care. I’ve seen kids who need family, a home, food, clothing. But I’ve never met anyone who NEEDS foster care.
The question, like so many illogical statements about foster care are simply begging the question – using a premise to support the question. The premise is that foster care is the solution to maltreatment, neglect and abuse. Ergo, kids in those situations NEED foster care because foster care is the solution.
Continue reading What about these kids? Didn’t they NEED foster care?
I’ll make this brief.
How do you know you have a bias against a group of people?
For your consideration:
One: This comic from Katie Wheeler and Ryan Deveraux about the life long effects and trauma of being separated from their parents when immigrating to the US.
vs.
Two: The (apx.) 20 million current and former foster children across the US (6% of the population) who no one seems to think suffer the same life long effects and trauma.
Because?
When you are of the belief that the same action hurts one group of people in one way but not another, you have to ask why you think that. When you think that you have an obligation to fight for one of those groups, but not the other, you have to ask yourself why.
And the only answer anyone ever comes up with is “but their parents…” Yeah. I know. I know their parents did something you didn’t like. How does that justify the trauma we are inflicting on kids taken into the foster system?
The scene portrayed in the comic is EXACTLY the scene that plays out everyday in this country with parents and children taken into foster care.
Consider me… not shocked.
Brain imaging in infants shows that exposure to domestic violence – even as they are sleeping, or in utero – can reduce parts of the brain, change its overall structure and affect the way its circuits work together.
This summer, my wife and I completed the foster parent training course in our county. I’m not sure we will foster at this time, but it’s on our radar. Regardless, I went through a little dip in my psyche after six Saturdays of being triggered 4 hours straight and not screaming.
Depressing would hardly define my feeling as I watched the faces of every prospective foster parent in that class admit they have never heard of the ACES study on the last day of the course – even after the facilitator specifically instructed the class to view a video about the ACES study. “How many have heard of the ACES study?” Chirp. Chirp. Un-freaking-believable. {Here’s a nice Ted Talk so you have a clue about why the ACES study is so profound and why I probably won’t see my 75th birthday.}