Behind the name Mothering4Money

I pretty much knew when my hits more than doubled in one day that someone had linked to me. I figured they were either wildly popular or the post was controversial. It seems some people have been visiting from Legally Kidnapped. Hello. Welcome to my blog. Feel free to spew nasty hateful comments. Oh wait, you already have.

So once again I'm going to explain why I chose the blog name Mothering4Money.
1) I couldn't think of anything funny/clever
2) People ASSume foster parents do it for the money and this is so pervasive a stereotype that I couldn't help but to make fun
3) Anyone who actually fosters knows it's not lucrative
4) I simply could not think of a good name for a blog
5) I was TRYING to be funny

We've had 5 foster kids so far. The first foster kid we took every single penny of the board payments for the 6 months she lived with us and put it into a savings account so that we could buy her a vehicle upon her high school graduation. The deal was she would work and save her money and we would match whatever amount she saved. She had expenses that we paid for out of our own pocket. For example: shoes, hair cut and style, yearbook, senior pictures, class pictures, school pictures, cap and gown, school clothes, school supplies, art lessons, art supplies, doctor's co pays, medication co-pays, tampons, toothpaste, soap, shampoo & conditioner, makeup, food, etc. The 2nd and 3rd foster kids were only here for 6 days and the money for them didn't come until 2 months after they left. But we had to purchase for them clothes, books, toys, toothbrush, toothpaste, luggage, food, etc. The 4th kid came days before Christmas so we had to buy all her christmas gifts out of our pocket since it was too late for christmas charities. She lived with us for 2 months and her board payment came right after she left our home. We helped her furnish her apartment and walked her through the court process of being emancipated. We also had her on our vehicle insurance since she had her own car already. All paid out of our pocket. The 5th foster kid, the one we still have and will be adopting, has been with us since he was 2 days old. We've had to purchase everything for him. Any money that is left over goes into his savings account. We view it as a head start on his college fund.

We had 2 girls for weekend respite. They ate massive quantities of food. No joke - an entire pizza, apple and banana each, and 2 litter soda for dinner for just them (times 5 meals and 2 snacks they ate with us). We rented 4 movies and took them to our family gathering at a local restaurant and fed them there as well. Because we had them after school on Friday until after breakfast on Sunday, it was viewed by CPS as only one full day so we got paid $28 total which I can assure you went towards food and entertainment for them. Would you babysit for two nights and part of three separate days for $28 dollars?

Meanwhile, we take care of other people's children 24/7. Some of them are not easy to parent. We loose sleep at night either because we fear they will kill someone in our sleep, fear they will run away, or because they are up crying missing home. We go to court, often once per month per kid, and have to arrange childcare for that in addition to missing work (not me, but when my husband goes he has to miss work). We take them to the doctor, dentist, counselor, school, extracurricular activities, parental and/or sibling visits, etc. We try our damnedest to undo the effects of abuse and neglect the birth parents inflicted on the children. We attend training events to try and learn more; to be better foster parents. We jump through hoops, fill out paperwork, endure monthly homevisits and semiannual reviews, background checks, etc. We do all of this with no expectation of payment or appreciation. We do this because we care. We do it because we like to parent. We do this because we like to help. We do this because CPS had a need and we had the strength to fill that need.

We most certainly do NOT do this for the money.