My Family Moments: Don't you know who I am?

Monday, May 27, 2013

Don't you know who I am?

I had a few crazy experiences when visiting bio-mom in juvenile hall. Go figure! One that always comes to mind that directly included me was when a substitute Social Worker came in to supervise. In the beginning she walked into the waiting room with Barry, who I had met before. She didn't introduce herself, just stood in front of me. I introduced myself since it was really awkward. I overheard that she was going to go in with me and not Barry. Immediately after her introduction she says, "Why are we meeting here?" She had this look of disdain and disgust of our meeting location. I was flabbergasted but confused. And maybe entertained a bit. I looked at Barry assuming she had read about the case or spoke about it on the ride over. Barry told her, "Bio-Mom is incarcerated here." She responded with the expected, "Oooooh." Who is this lady!?!

Little did I know she was not done. She followed me inside the room and sat directly behind me in a room with at least 15 other chairs. (Okay?!) About 15 minutes in, Bio-Mom asked me about how he is doing with sitting upright and how strong he is getting. I told her how at 4 1/2 months I can carry him on my hip. (My hand is on his back of course.) But this boy is strong! Before I even finished my sentence the Sub looked directly at Bio-Mom and said, "You really shouldn't do that till the baby is at least 6 months." I reassured her that this little boy has blown the normal milestones out of the water and is very strong. She looked at me, turned back to Bio-Mom and said, "Still, you shouldn't do that." I turned my back to her and was blown away. Who did she think she was? Did she know who I was? So, I asked her! "Did Barry tell you who I am? I'm "Little Man's" Foster Mom. You know I have had him since birth?" (I wanted to say I AM HIS MOM!) She had known. Ok... then why the heck are you telling his bio-mom that what I am telling her is wrong and basically I have no clue what I am talking about?! I had no one there who I really knew since we also had a sub-parole officer. I was ready to pop.

Funny small world... the same lady showed up to the halfway house as a SW for another housemate. Luckily, I was not there. It would have driven me crazy. lol...

Ok...I feel better now.

:)Amy

No comments:

Post a Comment

"Foster Family" Terminology

SW: Social Worker = This is a professionally trained (at times I feel from a YouTube video) individual who works for any County or private organization. My foster baby will have a SW and I will have a SW who is also known as a CCW. (see below)

CCW: Clinical Case Worker = This is a professionally trained individual, also known as a Social Worker who works for Angel’s Foster Family Network. They are assigned to a maximum of 12 families at one time and lead them through the fostering system. They are our right hand gal. (no males as of yet) This person does all the legal pushing and pulling on our behalf so we can focus solely on loving and caring for our foster babies. I would not and will not ever do my job as a foster mom without these people.

Supervised Visit = The bioparent has rights to see their child no matter the circumstances. Most often the visits begin as 1 to 2 hours, 1 to 2 times a week. An adult that is approved must watch the parent with the child at all times. (sometimes a lot of work and sometimes boring as heck)

Unsupervised Visit = The bioparent has rights to see their child no matter the circumstances before. If they are improving their situation then they will eventually get the right to have visits without supervision. The foster parent must drop off the child at an approved location and pick them up later. Most often the visit is for 2-6 hours 1 to 2 times a week. And these will only increase in length as the situation improves. (super hard for the foster parent to move to this step)

Foster Baby/Child = A child that has been removed from their biological family due to many different reasons affecting the welfare of the child. They are then placed in protective custody under the County and State.