To Each His Own

Disclaimer: Due to HIPAA laws, all blog posts related to our Foster Care experiences will have limited information when referring to the children and their cases. Their names will remain private and I will use generalizations when writing. I will not be posting any photos of the children that are in our care. My blog will remain public so people can stumble-upon it and so you can share with your family and friends. My FB page (close friends & family only) has the proper privacy settings in place per our licensing coordinator and I will be posting photos on there. It's basically Fort Knox! :)


Disclaimer: Although we are pro-corporal punishment, we do abide by the Florida Statutes for Child Care (Pg 19) and use the required discipline for our foster children.


As foster parents, we are required to log sixteen hours of training each year to keep our license current. There are a few different ways to complete those hours, watching approved movies (particularly The Blind Side), training classes, online training, FAPA meetings, etc.

Being the new kids on the block, we were approached about a 5 week behavioral assessment class and assumed it was a requirement for all foster parents. They would meet every Tuesday night for 3 hours. Needless to say, 5 weeks later, we still aren't sure if it was actually a requirement.

When it comes to discipline, we've had many discussions about our views prior to having kids. I think its important to make sure both parents are united in that decision because it has the potential to be a sticky situation if you're not. We both agree, if executed properly, spanking (yes, I said it) proves to be an effective form of punishment. I know it tends to be a taboo topic, but I am here to tell you I am a survivor of spankings and I turned out just fine. I'm not saying that's the only form of discipline we will enforce in our home, we believe there are an assortment of appropriate forms of discipline for certain behaviors that spanking may not be effective for. But just so we're clear and I don't offend anyone, the purpose of me bring up spanking isn't to tell you what to do, I understand everyone chooses to discipline differently and that's fine too.

We found ourselves in a pickle once we got our newest foster child. He is at the age that discipline should be enforced and unfortunately In the world of foster care, spanking is a no for obvious reasons. In the absence of spanking, time out is our alternative go-to punishment. He came from a home with zero structure so we had our share of challenges in the beginning. About the time we started our class, we were finally making major progress is his behaviors, which was quite rewarding considering we'd never done this before. The class opened our eyes to different ideas to help us with some problem areas and also gave us reassurance that what we were already doing was good too. Even though the the instructors don't really teach time-out (go figure) as a proper punishment, it's definitely worked for us. Oh yeah, and they don't use the word punishment either because it apparently gives off a negative connotation. Call me crazy, but isn't bad behavior negative? Their theory is ignore the junk behavior and praise the good - to each his own I guess! Did I forget to mention the instructors aren't actually foster parents?

One thing Ben and I have in common is we aren't afraid to speak our mind. It's not our most promising attribute, even if it's contradicting everyone else. In fact, on more than one occasion we were the cause of open debates between the instructors and fellow attendees. Although off base at times, overall the training was full of great tools that we have already incorporated in our home.

I would absolutely love feedback on what forms of discipline work best in your home. You can do that by leaving me a comment below or emailing me privately at naomishari@gmail.com 

The book the curriculum is based off of is called "The Power of Positive Parenting" by Dr. Glenn Latham.

Billy...I mean BeeWee!

Disclaimer: Due to HIPAA laws, all blog posts related to our Foster Care experiences will have limited information when referring to the children and their cases. Their names will remain private and I will use generalizations when writing. I will not be posting any photos of the children that are in our care. My blog will remain public so people can stumble-upon it and so you can share with your family and friends. My FB page (close friends & family only) has the proper privacy settings in place per our licensing coordinator and I will be posting photos on there. It's basically Fort Knox! :)

Disclaimer: I may or may not care if offend anyone with my next statement. I officially HATE the name Billy. Yeah, hates a strong word..blah, blah, blah! But seriously, it makes me cringe and let me tell you why. As I stated in my last post, right off the bat it was clear that our newest foster child has a speech problem. As soon as he walked through the door, He was instantly taken to our dog. We introduced her as Mollie and gave him some toys to let her fetch. It was the most exercise our dog has seen in her 3 years of existence.

It wasn't till later that we realized he was calling her Billy. You're probably thinking, "Aww that's cute!" Well it was, the first 450 times! Its not just that he calls her a different name, its the way he pronounces it - Beewee! Before you say, "Maybe he doesn't know how to pronounce the letter M?", you're mistaken, because that was my initial thought. Here is a list of some "M" words he does know...
 - Mama
 - Move
 - Moo
 - More
 - Make
 - Milk


I'm not sure why something so silly drives me crazy. Maybe it's because I now call my dog one of the following name on a daily basis: Mollie, Billy, Bollie, BeeWee or Millie! If it isn't bad enough that she's been a bit neglected since we got kids, she is now struggling with an identity crisis and I can't even get her name right. Oh the joys of motherhood!