Lisa Machin’s journey with foster caring

Acolumn about parenting you say? Easy, peasy! I’ve always loved children, been able to make them laugh and enjoyed helping them grow and develop into little adults.

In fact, by 2018 I had planned to have one! But life is full of twists and turns.

The thought of anyone, especially a child, not having a place that feels safe and someone who believes and invests in them breaks my heart.

So last year I put my name down to be a foster carer, and heart in throat sat on my front steps to read the info package.

It’s not a thought you entertain lightly. I wouldn’t be able to sleep in, I’d have to get up and cut up banana and pack sandwiches.

And sometimes I’d bear the brunt of some pretty bad behaviour, as little people battled through abandonment, anger, mental health and just the normal strangeness of being away from their own home. Yet, it still all seemed worth it. On the day the foster care organisation came for my home visit, a mind-sapping heatwave had descended.

We sipped water from my vintage glasses at the table, pedestal fans blaring uselessly at our side.

“Do you have a gun licence? Do you live alone? Would the children have their own room? Do you have anger issues? What age group would you be best suited to care for?”

The most recent statistics from Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing (2017a) show that as of June 2016, there were 46,500 Australian children living in out-of-home care.

Australia is desperately in need of foster carers.

If I can give even a few weeks’ peace and support to someone whose life needs it, it’ll be worth it.

To become a foster carer visit: www.qld.gov.au/community/ caring-child/foster-kinship-carehow-to-become-a-carer.