What we’ve learned being foster parents

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Transcript

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0:00 Hey guys, I’m Brooks and I’m Mandee. So we’re husband and wife, entrepreneurs. And we believe that life and business are a giant adventure and we want to live it with you guys.

0:11 So let’s get to it.

0:24 Hey guys, so welcome back. So today, Mandee, and I want to talk a little bit about fostering and it sounds crazy, but fostering children is really put a good practice of like teamwork and work life balance in our life. Would you say? That’s, that’s right, maybe? Absolutely. So. Yeah, cool. So we got licensed to be foster parents a few years ago, two years ago, in 2017 2017 Okay, and so, and what we do in in foster and by the way, we’d advise anyone that has any interest at all in fostering children to do it. It’s very rewarding if you have questions. You can reach out to us. But we went through the process of doing that. And we decided to be involved in respite care. And so what respite care is basically short term, short term care for children that are already in the foster system. So we’re basically taking care of those children for other foster parents. And our friends, Cassius, and they’ve asked like, Oh, cool. So you basically babysitting for foster parents? And at first we got really, I think, frustrated with that question.

1:30 And you would think you were more defensive? Because it’s not like no, it’s not just babysitting.

1:35 Yeah, it’s not good. But in reality, like, Yes, we are. So we’re basically taking a child for a set period of time that we know about. So it could be for two days, or it could be for a week or whatever. When a foster parent has to either a go at a town be maybe they need a break. See, like in our most recent instance, the mother broke her foot and needed emergency help for the three children that she cares for. And so that’s where we step in, and the reason Why you have to be licensed is because the children are basically guardian. The state is the guardian of the children. Right? And so, so if you’re gonna keep a child for more than like 24 hours, 24 hours you have to be licensed. And so I like to joke now and say yes, we’re absolutely that’s exactly what we are we’re babysitters, we just have to be cleared by the FBI and have background checks and go through tons of training. So right. But with that said, like, it’s been really rewarding, and I think it’s, we, as a couple have to have extreme teamwork when it comes to fostering these children, right, because sometimes we have very short night. It’s like the last child we just kept for three nights. He literally asked me that, I think a day or two before the day before the day before you said Hey Brooks, we have the ability to foster child for three days starting tomorrow Are you game and you know, like, basically just throw out whatever you have kind of on your calendar, not not throw not throw out but like, you have to be willing to adjust your life for the life of another child in order to help protect serve them. And we both just kind of like the chat and said, Yeah, cool. Let’s do it. Right, like exactly like that most recent one. Yeah. And like, we kind of go into a little bit of teamwork mode. I know like, you know, we have a room where we store we keep young children. So like ages four and below. So we have a room. So you know, I go upstairs and I grab high chair, I grab the pack and play, grab some toys, bring them downstairs, get that set up. I feel like you’re kind of like you kind of typically get the child to the daycare every day. I think it’s

3:36 like here in diaper duty to my

3:39 daycare, and I were duty. Yeah, exactly. And so and I’m willing to, like do anything else that you told me. I don’t have to if I don’t have to do diapers all the time, right? I’m not scared. I’m not terrified. It’s just I just felt you do so much better than me. You know, I know what you’re doing. Right? Right. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, like well, what else do you think? I mean, do you think it’s a good I mean, I feel like it’s a good teamwork practice for us. I mean, I feel like when we when we take on foster children, I mean, do you think it’s a good like, you

4:11 know them? Absolutely everything does change, you have to change your Yeah, you just your regular daily schedule for however many days that we have a different child is another human that you have to take care of. And they have to get to daycare, you have to get them from daycare, they have to have naps, and there’s what time they go to sleep and all those kinds of things. And if you guys know about babies, they don’t sleep, but you just lay down and go to sleep. So you have a routine for that. It’s just a lot. It’s just different, different routine for a few days,

4:39 actually. And to me, that’s kind of like a part of the adventure of it. You know, I’m all about the adventure life and business life. So i’m john adventure. That’s kind of interest in that because when we get a child we literally know nothing about the child. We don’t know their sleep pattern. We don’t know how well they do at night. We don’t we don’t know those things, right. Why? In fact, we picked up this child most recently. We went to an event with other with other friends and people like Oh cool. Who’s like who’s the baby? Oh, you have this baby. What’s your story and all that and like there, what’s her name? I almost didn’t even know her name. Because I’m like, I literally just met this young lady like 20 minutes ago. Yeah, like, Oh, yeah, this is her name. Yeah. Um, and so our dogs over there traveling to China him, I can hear that he scratches the floor. But, but yeah, so. I mean, and so it’s really interesting. It’s a testimony. I feel like for us for teamwork. I’m really excited at the end of it, because I don’t know I just feel like we go through this like little like mini mini battle or this little mini like thing that’s kind of thrown our way. And we’re like, cool. Can we do it? Can we figure it out? Can we adjust life? And, you know, and and beyond what we have going on and be a little bit selfless for a little bit of time. And you mentioned earlier, I don’t know if you did or not, but like, how about the work life balance? I’m saying like if it’s something that we want to do That we just have to be willing to say yeah, I’ll

6:02 find a way to fit it in. If it’s something that you truly want to do and you feel like it’s something that gives you life, you will find a way to work it in.

6:11 It’s not easy right now. It’s never easy. Like there’s nothing there’s really nothing easy about it. I mean, selfishly Yeah, there’s it’s definitely it’s rewarding. I mean, I myself have not had my own baby or child so therefore it’s kind of cool, right like having that baby opportunity getting to get into kind of care for a little infant. Um, but so that’s that part. But beyond that aspect, it’s basically a lot of words throwing throwing a curveball into your into your schedule, but I’m game for it and I think it helps shape our our marriage and like our teamwork and like the work life balance of like the way we’re living life as an adventure. I think that’s like a little bit of that adventure for us. Yeah, every day and everyday life,

6:54 but that it helps that we don’t have the typical nine to five maybe it hurts I’m not sure but I think It helps that we are a little bit more flexible. We don’t have to be somewhere to clock in every day. You know, working around daycare schedules and all those kinds of things. I think it definitely helps. But yeah, it’s it’s always a challenge.

7:17 That’s a good point. That’s a good point. So yeah, so if you guys have questions about fostering or you’re interested in that, or you want to know what it’s like, or you want to know what the processes to go through it, feel free to reach out to us, um, connect with us. We’re happy to kind of answer your questions or guide you through it if that’s something you’re interested in. Yeah, we just look forward to look forward to connecting with you. So that’s it for today. We’ll see you see you next time.

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