A Fostering Journey 67

It was agreed that there would be one more attempt at a contact with Mum given her no show and then her behaviour at the second contact. Mum was reminded about being on time at that she would be alone with nobody else in attendance. Mum, for some reason, had come back with her own request and that was that the Foster Carers would not be in attendance, we would basically drop off, leave, and return when the contact had finished. We had no issue with this in the slightest and agreed immediately. We trusted that the Social Worker, who was supervising contact, could deal with whatever happened. So the following week we set off again for the contact centre with our delightful journey around the A205. This time we arrived 20 minutes early and were delighted to see the Social Worker already there. We left the children with her and set off for a bit of shopping and a coffee. We had a call at 1030 to say that Mum had just turned up, 30 minutes late. We carried on with our tour of the shops and then headed back in time to collect the children. On our arrival we saw Mum leave and we parked and went in. The Social Worker updated us on how the contact had gone, which hadn’t been great, and we left about 30 minutes later. Mum had expected an extra 30 minutes as she was late and when the baby needed changing she asked the Social Worker to do it. The Social Worker reminded her that she was only there to observe and not there for a chat or to help Mum unless it was really necessary. So Mum changed her and then fed her. She said she didn’t feel comfortable with the Social Worker watching her but it was explained to her again that she was there to supervise and that Mum would have to get used to it, moving forward. It was a long journey home but we were glad that contact had gone with minimal issues. We eventually got home and changed and fed the babies and, put them down for a nap once they were winded and settled. We also took the opportunity to have a 30 minute nap before own kids got home. Whilst my wife organised dinner I updated our log and email our Supervising Social Worker to update them on how the day had gone and what had happened. The rest of the week was quiet and the babies were settling into a routine. We had a visit from a Health Visitor who weighed and measure the little one and we were pleased to hear that she was putting on weight and growing as was hoped. She had a quick check of the eldest and checked his red book to see how he was progressing, and he was also doing fine and was where he should be length and weight wise. So everything was going well, the babies, and both of us, were in a good routine and everyone was healthy. I was now going to brave changing the little girl and hadn’t and it went better than thought in as far as I didn’t break anything. We were getting regular family visits to see both of them and my father in law and the little boy had struck up a real relationship. My father in law was a little deaf and tended to speak loudly and whenever the little boy heard his voice he was very excited.