Child Carers Quotes

Women in Bolivia are credited with one year of pension contributions per child, up to a maximum of three children. As a side benefit (and a more long-term solution to the problem of feminised poverty), pension credits for the main carer have also been found to encourage men to take on more of the unpaid care load.60 Which raises the question: is women’s unpaid work under valued because we don’t see it – or is it invisible because we don’t value it?

In his great work Attachment and Loss (published in three volumes in 1969, 1972 and 1980), Bowlby explained that an adult’s sense of self is built up through the relationships it has as a child: if a parent or carer is warm, consistent, attuned, steady and kind, the child will thrive. It will have confidence in itself and in the world. It will know how to love and will have the courage to start relationships, secure in the knowledge that it can complain calmly if its needs are neglected.

If they are not distorted by outside influences the relationship between a baby and her carers can help the adults to grow as well as the child.

-The four pillars of childhood are necessary for optimal emotional development of the formative child and thus the adults. These are: 1) Unconditional love and positive reinforcement from our parents and/or primary carers. 2) Discipline – All children need accompanying boundaries to go with this unconditional love. 3) Encouragement and respect from our parents and/or primary carers, during the formative years (and beyond) for our own personal development. 4) Self Control – By this we mean "control of the self", the sense of control for oneself – feeling safe and having one's own space.

formal meeting, in which all concerned parties are present, so that social services can give the new carers some background and so that a plan of action for the child or children’s future can be put in place. But in practice … Hmm, I thought, we’d been

Around the world there are 31 million girls who don’t get a single day at school. More than 10 million girls are married off as child brides every year. Millions more are forced to lose their education and chance of better future employment as they are sent out to work as cheap child labour or kept at home to serve as carers. The evidence is clear that providing universal education in developing countries could have huge impact on economic growth … and the results are starkest of all when it comes to educating girls. As ever it makes both big and small sense to invest in girls, and it is time to close that gender

The Circle of Security map is a user-friendly guide to a child’s emotional state as it moves from attachment to exploration and back again. The ‘safe haven’ of the parent or carer (one who is ‘bigger, stronger, wiser and kind’) is illustrated by an inviting pair of grownup hands. ‘My behaviour actually means that I need you,’ the cartoon toddler says with arms upheld. ‘Stay with me until we both understand this feeling that seems too much for me alone.’ That

dominated by the needs of the damaged child, but I don’t mind. Like many foster carers, I’m driven by a powerful need to ease their pain. I remember myself as a child, walking by our local newsagents on the way to school. Outside the shop stood a little wooden figure of a beggar boy with polio, both legs fixed in metal callipers and a forlorn expression painted on his face. He held up a sign saying ‘Please give’ and there was a slot in the top of his head for pennies. Undeterred by the bird droppings across his shoulders, I would give him a quick hug, longing to take him home and make him better. My pulse quickens as we pass over a deserted bridge lined with old-fashioned street-lamps. After seven years of fostering I still feel an intense excitement when taking on a new child. It’s only been a few days since my last placement ended and already I’m itching to fill the void. As we drive past the riverside council blocks I’m reminded of one of my previous charges – three-year-old Connor, a boy who spent a large part of his day roaming the