I just saw a thread about foster care, which did not paint an accurate picture of why children are removed, foster parent "salary", etc.

As a foster parent I have a few words about the experience.

Content and trigger warning, there will be talk of severe child abuse.

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First, I want to talk about motivation for fostering.

Different people are motivated differently, so I can only speak for my family.

We originally wanted to adopt children because we can't have our own.

While researching adoption, we learned about fostering.

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We felt we had room in our lives to take in kids who needed a place to go. So we shifted our focus.

Since then we have had several children come and go. Each situation was different, and I will get to that.

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Regarding the "salary" we get: there is no salary.

We do receive money to cover some of the costs we incur, like paying for medical care, buying them clothes, etc.

It is not anywhere near the quoted $39K.

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All told, we generally end up going out of pocket to cover all expenses.

We take kids under 3, and as any parent can tell you, diapers, clothes, food, formula, various medical costs... It all adds up really fast.

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