Quote:
Originally Posted by frog  That was me. I'm in Michigan, too.
When the group being trained was told that we couldn't hit the foster kids by way of discipline, several people were totally shocked. When we checked in the next morning, they asked us to tell them what stood out to us about the prior day's training. I said that what stood out most to me was the number of people who were surprised that we're not supposed to hit the kids. I was reminded that you can't hit the foster kids, but that "spanking with love" is supported when it's "your own" kids. I responded that there's no "spanking with love" from my perspective, that hitting a kid is abusive, period. I was told that "We don't judge people, here," to which I replied, "I don't judge them, either, but I have no problem judging actions that are abusive."
See? Troublemaker.
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Hey we must've been in the same class, LOL. In my class, when parents were told that you had to support a child's practice of their own religion, it started a whole debate about whether if you are a Christian, you'd really want to foster a Buddhist child. The trainer said "Yknow...Buddhists are the ones that worship those statues!" oh boy. And then she related her "weird" experience at a mosque. So she said be careful agreeing to take a child of a different religion. I didnt pipe up with the fact that i have no religion. One of the parents there was saying that if her toddler niece falls on the coffee table and hurts herself, the aunt will distract her by 'beating' the table, and shouting "bad table! bad! you shouldnt have hurt the baby!!!"...and it will make her niece laugh and forget she was hurt. I wanted to point out that maybe she shouldnt be teaching her niece that physical aggression is the solution to a problem, and that perhaps she could model gentler ways of dealing with pain....but somehow i didnt think that would go over very well. I was already one of the few single moms, only white person, only person wanting to adopt (instead of foster)and the only person who seemed to have researched the issues at all.....so i didnt want to draw even more attention to myself.
Katherine
