this is sort of craziness, i think, and i am waaaaay confused.
okay, so i got a call today from my licensing worker. she had discovered that i had a blog and that there was some inappropriate information on it.
let me just say, first, that i love my licensing worker (especially now that she reads my blog! ...... i'm just kidding -- i think tricia is awesome regardless of whether or not she reads my blog!). and i'm not upset at her in any way over any of this. she and i had the same understanding before all of this came about, but apparently we were mistaken. blah.
a person whom i came across in the foster care system requested to be a friend of mine on facebook. i confirmed it. on my facebook page she saw a link to my personal blog. she went to it. apparently, she was very displeased with what she read and called my foster care agency to complain!!
i've had to remove two posts that contained obscure references to my current and past placements.
now, i WILL admit that i had, some months ago, posted a very funny picture of a baby we had in our care, without thinking much about it. i shouldn't have, i realized my mistake, and i removed it as soon as i became aware that it was still up.
then, i get a call back again later today that says not only was THAT the issue, but that this person was upset that i wrote in another post about receiving placements as well as their ages. .... yeah.
so, now i'm not supposed to even mention that i'm a foster parent? ever? am i never allowed to say that i have 4, 5, 6 kids in my home? am i never allowed to mention that shiloh had fun playing with "so and so" today? am i never allowed to suggest that i'm tired from staying up all night with a ghost baby that lives in my house? please!!
foster parenting is a MAJOR part of my life! how on earth am i supposed to "hide" it?
i mean, whatever. it's just a blog post. i'll take it down, fine. but i specifically asked this question when i was in my licensing classes b/c my husband and i are both bloggers, albeit inconsistently. we had a personal blog at the time where we shared photos with our out-of-state family and friends and wondered how that would work with foster children. the workers' answer was that we were not allowed to post pictures or use real/full names, for obvious reasons. completely understand.
which is why this is so irritating! i love being a foster parent. i go to every team meeting, every court date, transport to every visit for every one of my placements, and i'm going to get in trouble over this?! there are people out there who stick their foster kids in the barn to sleep (for real!!) and i'm going to get in trouble over this?!
i'm not the only blogger to discuss foster parenting, by the way. i have many blogs on my blogroll in many different areas of the country where they discuss specific cases, use names, and some are even so bold as to post pictures. *gasp* i'm not going to name them here b/c i don't want someone going to their page and causing a stink in their lives like this has caused in mine.
so frustrating. if they ask me to remove a picture or name, i understand. i send many pictures of our kids to friends and family via email and our blog and it may happen accidentally. i have no issue whatsoever with removing any inappropriate confidential information. but to go so far as to say that you're upset that i even mention that i'm a foster parent....?
so, anyway. in this hypothetical world, i'm a hypothetical foster parent and will be going now to make dinner for my hypothetical foster children, in addition to my one biological child, who apparently is the only one that's worth mentioning.
(p.s. -- i'm sure i'll come back and apologize tomorrow for the rant, but for today, i feel it's justified. i'm just a little miffed.)
