Children of foster carers: a little insight into our world
When I was 12
...my parents started fostering. I quickly became a self-appointed ‘Mummy Number 2’ to the babies and children who came into our home.
Fostering wasn't always easy. Sharing my parents was hard. Witnessing the aftermath of trauma was hard. Saying goodbye to children I'd grown to love was heartbreaking.
But watching a child's personality unfurl as they began to feel safe was like magic. Witnessing their little victories, their first steps, and their laughter was incredible.
By 14, I'd decided I wanted to be a social worker. I qualified at 21 (affectionately known as "the one who looks about 12") and, 17 years later, that fire is still burning.
Growing up in a fostering family taught me so much about love, loss, trauma, resilience and belonging. And it helps me see the bits about fostering that aren't always seen:
Being a child in a fostering family is offering hugs when a foster sibling comes home sad after seeing their Mum. Reading them a story while Mum cooks dinner. Crawling under the bed to reassure them there aren't any monsters. Waking in the night to the sound of crying and going to school tired.
It's 'Children of Foster Carers Week 2026' and I'm reflecting on a childhood that was sometimes complicated, often chaotic, full of love, and unlike many others.
It's fetching another pack of baby wipes during a nappy explosion, knowing every nursery rhyme backwards, sharing your love of making up dances, or discovering that buses hold endless possibilities!
It's being a role model, belly laughs, last minute surprises, and treasured family stories.
But it's also family days out cut short, Christmas and Easter traditions changing a little every year, hearing your parents being shouted at, and going to school while a brother or sister moves on. It's bracing yourself when the Social Worker leaves after difficult news, knowing a child you love is hurting. It's having your stuff taken, making room for someone else's favourite dinner, another nit check, sharing friends, and growing an old head on young shoulders.
It's looking around your home and seeing the shadows of memories with so many brothers and sisters - some memories beautiful, some painful.
You learn to share your parents, your space and your family life. You learn that loving someone is worth it even when the goodbye is hard. You discover that fostering can be the most wonderful thing and, sometimes, a really difficult thing, all at once.
And you carry those experiences with you. Mine helped shape the Social Worker and the person I am today and taught me that the best way to support our children is to support the people caring for them.
We don't just grow up around fostering.
We grow up in it.
And it shapes us too ❤️
Read more about the young people who foster with us here.