The Foster Parents' Podcast

Episode #42- The One Thing You Should Start Doing in Your Home Today! This is something that we have done in our home for quite awhile. It is called Compliment Time! This is something that we feel has made one of the biggest differences in our home. What is compliment time? We meet together every day Continue Reading …

#42 – How To Build Success Through Failure One of the things that we’ve noticed since becoming foster parents is that everyone is afraid of letting foster kids fail. We’ve seen teachers who are willing to just hand them a grade because they don’t want them to fail, caseworkers and foster parents who won’t allow Continue Reading …

Episode #41 – 7 Tips to Handle Hard Caseworkers As we’ve fostered for almost 7 years, we’ve noticed that it is often hard to get along with caseworkers. So, we thought that it might be helpful if we came up with a list of things that we do that help us get along with caseworkers. Continue Reading …

Episode #40 – I’ve Been Rewarding…Now What? Awesome Question! We got an email the other day from one of our listeners about rewards and transitioning away from rewards. Here’s the question: “How do you transition from giving rewards for things [your foster kids do, to] foster kids doing that thing without a reward? So for example, if Continue Reading …

Episode #39 – Self -Care in Foster Care So it’s a new year!! Welcome to 2016. We are so excited to see what the new year brings for The Foster Parents, for our family, and yours! With a new year comes resolutions.  In this episode we talk about how we can make healthier choices so Continue Reading …

Episode # 38 How to Empower Your Foster Kids – Part 2 We always talk about developing basic skills like “Accepting Feedback” and “Following Instructions”, but also it’s important to develop skills like cooking, cleaning, budgeting, and others. When you are confident in your skills, you have the power to go forth and do something. Continue Reading …

Episode # 37 How to Empower Your Foster Kids So many foster kids have all but all of their power stripped away from them. As a result of this, they feel powerless, and they often give up and quit trying. It is our job as foster parents to empower our foster kids. We need to Continue Reading …

Episode – 36 Don’t forget your bios! One of the questions that we get asked all the time is about how foster parenting has affected our biological children. So, in short I’ll just say that it has been one of the best things to happen to them; however, it is also one of the hardest Continue Reading …

Seems like now a days, everyone between the ages of 5 and 105 years old has a cell phone. Naturally, with everyone else having cell phones, your foster kids will want cell phones. So, here’s some things that you need to know if you are considering allowing your kids to have cell phones. There are Continue Reading …

Episode 35 How to Manage Cell Phones With Foster Kids Seems like now a days, everyone between the ages of 5 and 105 years old has a cell phone. Naturally, with everyone else having cell phones, your foster kids will want cell phones. So, here’s some things that you need to know if you are considering Continue Reading …

Episode # 34 How to Set Boundaries and Why It’s Vital! When we have struggled as foster parents, it is usually because we have not do a good enough job at setting boundaries. When we have spoken to foster parents who are struggling, it is often due to a lack of boundaries. As a principal, Continue Reading …

Episode #32 Boys n’ Girls, Kids n’ Teens, & What’s the Difference? So, we’ve done foster care for about six and a half years. In that time we’ve had teenage boys, teenage girls, young boys, and young girls. There are pros and cons to each group. So, here’s the our take on it. Teenage Boys Continue Reading …

Episode 32 – The Power of an Attitude of Gratitude We firmly believe that attitude can change everything. Every day is either awesome or awful, but it depends on how we want to view it. I have noticed in my life that I can completely change my attitude, but it’s not easy. And, it usually Continue Reading …

Episode #31 Foster Kids and Depression and What You NEED to Know Have you ever felt down and depressed? Depression is a common thing in the lives of foster kids. There area few things that you should know when dealing with depression. Have you seen Disney/Pixar’s movie Inside Out? I know that there are people Continue Reading …

Episode #30 – Communicating during the Holidays Continuing on with our theme of making sure the holidays are relaxing and not super stressful, one of the big things we recommend is to communicate.  Who should you be communicating with? The Foster Youth in your home: Let them know what the plan is or give them Continue Reading …