Social Workers

I don't often have nice things to say about social workers.  I often don't see the benefit they play in a childs life once there is a sense of permanancy.

They think they know the kids best (really...a 30 minute visit every six weeks for the last 6 months and you think you know them better than me? 24/7 for the last 18 months...sure ya do!)

They make decisions that affect the kids without even hearing the kids point of view.  "You will be a girl guide" Yeah bloody right... you'd have better luck telling this kid to join book club!

They come and visit every 8 weeks just to remind the child that they are in fact "in the system" still. Waiting for some permanency in their lives.

But they do deserve a bit of credit. It would be a bloody hard job looking out for the best interests of so many kids without actually having the time to get to know them all.  They get abused by parents, they get shoved away by children and they get given a heck of a lot of pressure from caregivers.

Miss 13s social worker finishes in her job.  She came for a final visit before she moves on to where-ever she goes next.  Miss 13 was rude (completely ingored her and sat on the floor with her back to her), and it made me feel bad!

To start with - I couldn't work out why I felt bad...but after awhile I had several reasons
1) It makes me look bad that my child could be that rude to someone in the home.
2) this woman is in a thankless job, is leaving, and isn't even going to get a thank you.
3) how much of Miss 13s dislike for SW has come from the vibe of frustration she gets from me.

As SW was leaving I said to Miss 13, "this is the last time  you will see SW, what do you say" she looked at the social worker and said "thank you" and to me...with a questioning look on her face "I think".  She actually didn't know if thank you was what she was supposed to be saying!

I can understand why - who wants to thank the person who told you that you will never return to your family.

The good news here is this - Miss 13 won't be getting a new social worker.  We are so close to having court orders in our favour - that they have decided that if another 8 week visit is needed that our caregiver SW who comes to check on us once a year as caregivers - will come and do the visit; so that Miss 13 doesn't have to go through getting to know yet another SW.  It won't need to be an interactive meeting with Miss 13 - just a 'tick the box so we can say she is alive'.

So now we are back into that waiting game. Waiting on a court date. Waiting on a response from the biological parents.  Waiting, waiting, waiting for the orders to come through that will give us the ultimate responsibility for well...perhaps ... bungy jumping?



And one last reminder...if you haven't clicked one of the 'badges' to Top Mommy Blogs today...click here: http://www.topmommyblogs.com/ to vote. Thank you.