Tag: child

It’s not where you come from.

On By rebelwithkindnessIn Uncategorised, UncategorizedLeave a comment

It not where you come from it’s where you belong.

I listened to this song the other day and I just fell apart. The words hit my heart and like a dam breaking inside of me the tears began to fall.

Journeying through life isn’t easy but it’s a lot harder when you don’t have the basic support structure behind you.

Family, friends, community.

These are what guides you and lifts you through the struggles of life.

Yes they may be times when one to two of these break but then hopefully the others step up and fill the gap.

Yet as a foster carer I know that sometimes this structure completely falls apart. For various reasons children find themselves in…

Need of a home.

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Need of a family.

in

Need of friends

and In

Need of a community.

My heart has broken listening to stories of kids growing up not knowing where they will be tomorrow.

Children scared of making friends because tomorrow they may be somewhere else.

This is why I love my job.

I get to be that structure for a child in need.

I get to love upon and help them to understand that they are loved.

Teach them that they deserve love and most of all they are safe.

I get to be family,friends and community to a child in need.

Each day children are taken into care and the need for foster carers has risen dramatically over the years.

It’s not an easy job, time after time you will find yourself being rejected.

But it’s not about you.

It’s about a child .

A child whose world had changed.

A child who is scared to trust.

A child in fear.

Yet being a foster carer is also one of the best jobs in the world.

You get to change a child’s life.

You get to make a difference.

What could be more amazing than that?

Its not where you come from it’s where you belong.

 

 

 

 

Not today thank you

On By rebelwithkindnessIn Uncategorised, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I am a very vocal advocate for children with special needs and different conditions. Obviously the main being Rett syndrome.

Anyway for most days you will find me happily chatting about what struggles having a child with disabilities can bring and also how to help said child reach their full potential.

It is a common conversation topic and I seriously don’t mind.

Well I didn’t till yesterday, then I had enough.

It may have been an overload from a training course, it may have been the left over tiredness from illness.

Regardless the reason I had just had enough.

I didn’t want to understand.

I didn’t want to have to inform.

I didn’t want to advocate.

I just wanted to be.

I hate that some children’s lives are the topic of such conversations. Working out the right medications and therapies to get a fulfilling healthy life.

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I want to be talking about girlfriends and boyfriends and not seizures or physio.

I want my child to walk to school not have to go in his wheelchair on a bus.

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I want to hear about his day from him and not have to read his diary.

I know life is life and nothing will change this.

I also know that I love my job and raising a child with special needs.

But sometimes

Somedays

I just want to say…

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Room to grow – Book Scheme

On By rebelwithkindnessIn Uncategorised, UncategorizedLeave a comment

To say that we are a household of book-lovers is a little of an understatement my husband calls my bedroom the library and my girls rooms are not following that far behind.

Yet over the last year or so I have noticed that the girls were becoming more likely to pick up their smartphone than they were a book. Now I wish this was because they were using a kindle app but no they were mostly using social media to chat with their friends.

Now I can excuse my older two a little as they have to do a giant amount of reading for their forthcoming GCSE’s and A Levels but my little one she has no excuse.

So when I received an email from Room to grow – a book-share scheme I decided it was a perfect way to encourage her back into books.

Room to grow is a children’s bed and furniture website now you may ask what that has to do with books. Well the company was so shocked at the recent statistics regarding the level of literacy in this country that they decided they wanted to do something.

Did you know England is the only developed country producing school leavers who are worse at reading than their Grandparents? According to a recent study by the organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development adults aged 55 to 65 perform better than 16-24 year olds.
A survey by the National Literacy Trust recently revealed that fewer children read in their own time, one in five are embarrassed when caught reading a book and one in three said they only read when they had to.

How truly awful are the above statements. I hate that children are embrassed to be found reading a book. I have spent many hours lost between the pages of a good story.

I have also spend many hours curled up sharing stories with my four girls. Watching their faces and their eager anticipation and what happens next.

Thankfully the company Room to grow were shocked and that they decided to fund a parent book share scheme. The concept is super simple but super fantastic too.

1. A book is sent to you
2. You return the book using our prepaid envelopes
3. You continue to receive books over the course of 3 months (minimum)

I love this

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We have already received our first book and my daughter is off on the adventure you can only find between the pages of a book.

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I think as parents we have an obligation to introduce our children to the world of books. If not only for the sheer pleasure one can get from reading but for that fact that no matter how quick the worlds technology may grow you always need to be able to read be it on a screen or in a textbook.

The literacy rate should be rising not decreasing.

I’m just so thankful that Room to grow is making an step to encourage this and in the words of the companies director.

“If Room To Grow can help even a single child understand or maintain the joy of reading and create an unending affection of books, then that can only be a good thing.”

Anne Davis, Room To Grow Director

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