help

collapse

Press one of the expand buttons to see the full text of an article. Later press collapse to revert to the original form. The buttons below expand or collapse all articles.

expand

collapse

Mom and Dad NOT

July 1, 2013 permalink

Vern Beck reports on child compelled to address his foster parents as mom and dad.

expand

collapse

Vernon Beck

As part of my research as an advocate, I recently interviewed a child on video who told me that he was being forced by the CAS workers and his foster parents to call the foster parents "mom" and "dad" when he knew who his real mom and dad were and loved his real mom and dad very much. The child said that it distressed him that he had to call his foster parents mom and dad. He also stated that he knew that if he did not comply he would be punished

The child had regular overnight access with his real parents and his only wish was to go back home. I visited the parents home and met the parents and they were fine couple with a good clean home. The father had a good job and they were very capable of caring for the child. There had been problems many years ago with the mother but all issues had been resolved however once the issues with mom were resolved the CAS refused to return the child back to mom and dad. The child said that he hated being in foster care so much so that he was smashing holes in the walls of the foster home out of frustration of wanting to go back home with his parents. The response by CAS was to prescribe drugs to the child.

During some research for resources I ran across a 123 page handbook for foster parents published in April of 2009 by the Louisiana Office of Community Services. In this government published foster parent guidebook on page 10 it states to foster parents, “Requiring the child to call you mom or dad may be stressful for the child due to his emotional attachment to his parents”. Certainly what this foster parent guide says supports what this child has disclosed to me.

...

A copy of the full foster parent guidebook can be downloaded from the Internet at the following website link: Foster Parent Handbook, and local copy (pdf).

Source: Facebook, Canada Court Watch

sequential