The Effects of Foster Parenting on the Biological Children of Foster Parents

Foster children face many difficulties when they are forced to integrate into a new family, but the family itself faces many other obstacles. The biological children of the foster parents are most sensitive to the many changes that the family faces, including having to share their parents' time and focus. Proper preparation is important, but there is almost no way to fully prepare a child for what they will face. Foster children in a home do provide some benefits that the biological child can enjoy.

  1. Shared Parental Time

    • Foster children represent an investment of time by a foster parent. The child requires time to learn to trust his new family, and the reality of the child's past complicates this procedure. The biological children of the foster parent may feel as though they are losing that time and that the new child is taking their parental time away from them. This requires a period of adjustment and can lead to resentment and misbehavior as an attempt to regain the lost attention.

    Preparation

    • It is impossible to adequately prepare the biological child of a foster parent for the changes that they can expect to occur with the introduction of a new child. According to the Children's Services website, the biological child requires as much explanation as possible. There are things that you may neglect and things that you will learn along the way, such as the specifics of the foster child's past or needs that her history dictates.

    Parental Focus

    • Foster parents tend to focus their attention on the foster child, due to their specific needs and adjustment difficulties. This focus often presents in the choices of activities, increased time spent outside of the house and items purchased for the new foster child. This increased focus can be frustrating and confusing to the biological child.

    Growing Family

    • Biological children can benefit from the growth of their family that a foster child brings. This includes the chance to bond with a new brother or sister. The opportunity to meet and eventually grow to care about their foster siblings serves as a healthy benefit, and many biological children in this situation have decided to become foster parents themselves. In addition, the situation that a foster child brings into a family also serves to teach the biological children of those families important lessons in communication and effective methods of forging close family bonds.

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