Monday, October 5, 2009

Risk of Accusations

A reader asked, "In this day, doesn't it worry you about being falsely accused of sex crimes?"

Being a foster parent brings with it certain risks, especially if you’re single and male. However, there are some things that I think help mitigate these risks. For example, making your home and activities open and transparent to friends, neighbors, social workers and the biological parents of the children in your care. Also, the longer your history of successes, the less believable any false accusation will be. At this point, after 15 years and 25 kids, some of which stayed with me for five or more years, why would I start mistreating one now?

Finally, like my father, I don’t want to live in fear and choose not to do a thing that I really want to do just because I am afraid of what might happen. (At least not regarding this topic. I am afraid of doing other things, but I’m working on it!)