Black Hawk Foster and Adoptive Parents, 108 Sunset Lane, Elk Run Heights, Iowa 1.888.622.4521 or 319.235.2534 www.blackhawkfosteradoptiveparents.com Inside this issue: AMP 2 Foster Families 2 Blanket Donation 3 Your Child’s Happiness 4 Training 5-6 More training 7 Black Hawk Foster & Adoptive Parent Newsletter Invest in Iowa’s Children….OUR FUTURE VOLUME 15 ISSUE 4 DECEMBER 2012 December Meeting Tuesday, December 11, 2012 6:00-8:00PM Grace Lutheran Church 1024 W. 8th Street Waterloo Catered meal Gifts for the children Door Prizes Picture with Santa Please bring your favorite holiday goodie to share! Please RSVP the number attending By December 7th to Dianna Seedorff at 319-235-2534 or 888-622-4521 [email protected]
7
Embed
Black Hawk Foster & Adoptive Parent Newsletter · Happiness 4 Training 5-6 More training 7 Black Hawk Foster & Adoptive Parent Newsletter Invest in Iowa’s Children….OUR FUTURE
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Black Hawk Foster and Adoptive Parents, 108 Sunset Lane, Elk Run Heights, Iowa 1.888.622.4521 or 319.235.2534
www.blackhawkfosteradoptiveparents.com
Inside this issue:
AMP 2
Foster Families 2
Blanket Donation 3
Your Child’s
Happiness
4
Training 5-6
More training 7
Black Hawk Foster & Adoptive Parent
Newsletter
Invest in Iowa’s Children….OUR FUTURE
VOLUME 15 ISSUE 4 DECEMBER 2012
December Meeting
Tuesday, December 11, 2012 6:00-8:00PM
Grace Lutheran Church 1024 W. 8th Street
Waterloo
Catered meal Gifts for the children
Door Prizes Picture with Santa
Please bring your favorite holiday goodie to share!
Please RSVP the number attending By December 7th to Dianna Seedorff at
Black Hawk Foster and Adoptive Parents, 108 Sunset Lane, Elk Run Heights, Iowa 1.888.622.4521 or 319.235.2534
www.blackhawkfosteradoptiveparents.com
Page 3 DECEMBER 2012
Bennington Booster 4-H Club Donates Blankets
A special thank you for their hard work and generosity goes to the members of Benningtion Booster 4-H Club for
making blankets for our Black Hawk Foster Parent’s support group. Pictured above are, Back row: Maty Ulrich,
Jennifer Wiley, Pat Haight, and Brooke Miller. Front row: Marissa Ulrich, Joe Ulrich, Jacob Steege, Stephanie Niel-
sen, and Rachel Reiter. Not pictured: Kayla Wiley, Stepanie Walker, Abby Klemp, Elisabeth Sage, Connie Butville,
Justyn Butville, and Quiten Miller.
The best and most beautiful things in the World cannot be
seen or touched. They must be felt in the heart.
-Helen Keller
Black Hawk Foster and Adoptive Parents, 108 Sunset Lane, Elk Run Heights, Iowa 1.888.622.4521 or 319.235.2534
www.blackhawkfosteradoptiveparents.com
Page 4 DECEMBER 2012
Don’t Focus On Your Child’s Happiness
Many parents strive to have happy kids. In their efforts, they are loath to see their children upset and seem to do any-
thing to allay the child’s consternation. So, what child wants, child gets. Child doesn’t want, child doesn’t have to do.
There is a belief by these parents that their children will be naturally appreciative and hence will behave inordinately
well. However, when their children do not behave as hoped or expected, the parents will admonish the child, advising of
how well the child has it and hence should act more reasonably. Typically the child shrugs off the lecture and the parent
feels more beholding to the child for upset caused by reasonable expectation and the parent winds up seeking to undo
the child’s distress by giving in to the greater demands of the child. A vicious cycle ensure and eventually the child acts
with a tremendous sense of entitlement, is out of control and increasingly is doing less and less in terms of reasonable
expectations such as helping around the house or taking care of school work. The child does what he or she wants and
literally nothing else. The parent feels impotent-helpless to do anything about the situation.
In truth, in the pursuit of their child’s happiness, parents forget to hold their child accountable to reasonable expecta-
tions. Rather than being concerned by the child’s objections to reasonable expectations, the parents need to concen-
trate on helping the child learn to tolerate frustration and learn to delay gratification and most importantly, learn to be
responsible.
Parents must understand that they cannot purchase their child’s happiness and nor can or should they spare them from
feeling frustration. A child’s frustration is the life lesson that they cannot get everything they want as they want it. Some
things they may never have and other things they may have to plan for. Learning these lessons, the child learns that life
does not revolve around just themselves, but around others as well. Thus they learn to cooperate and get along with
other in the pursuit of needs and wants. Further, the child learns that he or she cannot escape responsibilities and that
managing of responsibilities is tied to life’s rewards.
If you really want your child to grow up happy, the best thing a parent can do is concentrate on supporting their child to
act responsibly.
As your child is responsible in behavior and responsible in taking care of chores, school work and activities, then the
child develops skills and learns how to cope in the world. Further, this child stays out of trouble, cooperates with others
and completes tasks in a timely fashion. This child gets to reap the rewards of their responsible behavior. They learn to
cope with frustration and plan for things or events of interest. They also learn to cope with not obtaining everything they
may want or desire.
If your child learns this kind of responsibility, then your child can be truly happy. This is the kind of happiness that
comes from cooperation with others, intact relationships and earning life rewards by one’s reasonable actions.
So, don’t focus on your child’s happiness. Focus on helping your child become responsible and happiness will be the
outcome.
Gary Direnfeld, MSW, RSW
Black Hawk Foster and Adoptive Parents, 108 Sunset Lane, Elk Run Heights, Iowa 1.888.622.4521 or 319.235.2534
www.blackhawkfosteradoptiveparents.com
Page 5 DECEMBER 2012
In Iowa, foster parents need six hours of training annually to renew their foster care license. At least three training hours must be done in a group setting. Foster parents must complete their training two months prior to licensing date. Note: Families will no longer be granted extensions or exceptions for not getting their training credit on time. If you want to receive foster parent training credit, it is your responsibility to send your training certificates to your KidsNet licensing worker within 30 days following the training. Be sure to keep the original copy for your records.
PLEASE KEEP IN MIND - With the exception of CPR, First Aid and Mandatory Reporter classes, foster par-
ents CANNOT receive training credit for any class after October 2009 that they have previously attended
and used for re-licensing.
Foster parents are mandatory reporters of child abuse. As mandatory reporters, foster parents are re-quired to complete two hours of training in child abuse identification and reporting. This training must be taken within the first year of initial licensing and every five years thereafter. CPR & FIRST AID every three years, but before the end of the third training cycle.
“On Line Training”
DHS has approved that foster parents may receive up to
3 hours foster care training credit for courses listed on
www.FosterParents.com and
www.FosterParentCollege.com. The foster parent will
read the course material, answer the test questions, and
click on submit button. A certificate will be generated im-
mediately. The certificate will need to be sent to your
licensing worker. Remember to make and keep a copy
for your records. There is a charge for these trainings.
“Mandatory Reporters Training”
The Iowa Department of Public Health has approved
one online Mandatory Reporter Training Class for
foster parents to take. Foster parents will receive 2
hours of credit for this course. The cost to take this
course is $18.95 per person. PLEASE REMEMBER-
IFAPA promotes this online class as an additional
resource for foster parents; however, this is not con-
nected to IFAPA. For detailed instructions on how to