A day in the life of foster carer, Lynne

Lynne is a long term foster carer who has been fostering as a single parent for 6 years. She looks after two brothers. Alongside fostering, she has another caring role as she carries out personal care and medication help for three older people. Lynne also runs a short-term let property. Her days tend to be varied and busy, but that's how she likes it.                                                                 

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My morning as a foster carer

I get up at 6:15am in the morning, feed the dogs, and one of the dogs goes to doggy daycare for half a day because it's only a puppy. Then I get the boys up for school, sort breakfast out, and pack lunch for one of them before they go off to school.

My mornings look like...

• Get up and feed the dogs
• Get the boys up, sort breakfast, pack lunch
• School run done
• Walk the other dogs

Then, depending on what day it is, I get other things done during the school day, whether that's meetings, training, doing changeovers at the short term let, or visiting the elderly people I help care for.

My afternoons looks like

I get back from whatever work I've been doing, whether it be meetings, training or changeovers, sort out the dogs again, and then within half an hour or so the first boy will be home from school. We have a bit of a catch-up, then his brother gets in, and then we're off again with evening activities.

My evenings looks like

Quite often the younger boy has activities, so I spend time picking him up and dropping him off. He goes to different clubs for Maths, English and the YMCA.  I make tea, and then once both kids have gone to bed, I'll get about an hour or two just to chill. I usually spend a bit of time waching TV.

Some of the foster carer tasks I did today are:

• Emails mainly
• Preparing for some online fostering training this evening

Some things my foster child(ren) and I did today was:

The little one  recently got a new keyboard, so he was practising and playing for me, which was lovely.

• Watched funny YouTube videos together.
• Ate together and chatted about our day.

Something my foster children said to me today was:

• "See you later, love you always."

The best part of my day was...
When the youngest boy came out of his Maths club, he was beaming and told me how his teacher had said how amazing he'd done in his test. That was just a really proud moment.

Something I found tough today was: 

A meeing with school to discuss support for one of the boys. I needed to advocate for him and we talked about some exams that are coming up.

Some other things that are coming up this week are:

There's quite a lot on this week. I've always got a lot planned, to be honest. I've got more training, including starting training to become a listener for children and young people in schools and colleges. My first session is this evening. I'll be doing some of my care work. And then at the weekend, we're all quite excited about a birthday the 12th birthday outing we have planned for the youngest lad and his friends, they're going gaming and then for an Italians.

Since becoming a foster carer, the biggest way my days have changed is...
My house used to be absolutely immaculate - not a thing out of place - and I remember noticing that in someone else's house recently and thinking, "oh my God, my house used to look like that." But now it's a loving house with lots of laughter. Being a foster carer for siblings, it's just lovely listening to them chuckling away and play fighting. I'm also part of a much bigger circle of foster carers, so there's lots of support.

I mostly find that as a foster carer...

My days have a general routine with a few changes/surprises. I would say that we've got a good routine. The kids do need routine. They need to know what they're doing on what day, what I'm going and what they're having for tea. It's massively important to them.

My number one tip as a foster carer is:

When I first started, I was a bit worried and I used to listen to audiobooks and think, "what would I do in that situation?" That really helped to build my confidence, you also learn as you go and there are different training opportunities. Don't expect too much of yourself, and take advice as there's always lots of people you can ask for support.

                                                      Read a life in the day of Ann, a single parent foster carer to siblings