Are you an Empty Nester? You could make an incredible Foster Carer

If your only (or youngest) child has recently left home, you are likely feeling a mix of emotions, and it is completely normal to have ’empty nest syndrome’. You may be wondering, ‘What do I do now?’ and ‘How do I fill my time now that I don’t have to retrieve dirty glasses and bowls from their bedroom or tackle the endless mountains of laundry!?’. Fostering gives you the chance to put the wealth of parenting experience and skills you’ve gained to use, while making a life-changing difference to a local child in need. In this blog, we explore what empty nest syndrome entails and why becoming a Foster Carer (or Supported Lodgings host) can be a fulfilling choice for you if you’re missing having a young person in your home.

What is Empty Nest Syndrome?

Empty nest syndrome is a term used to describe the feelings of loneliness, sadness, and loss that parents often experience when their children leave home to live independently, go off to university or start a career. It is a natural response to the significant life transition that occurs when your house, once bustling with the activities and chatter of children, becomes quiet and empty. You may feel a sense of identity loss or a lack of purpose as you adjust to your new role and lifestyle. While empty nest syndrome is a common experience, its intensity and duration can vary from person to person.

Why you should explore fostering if you’re an Empty Nester

Fill the void by helping a local child

Are you searching for a new sense of purpose or a rewarding way to fill your time? Fostering gives you the opportunity to offer love, care, and support to children who need a stable and nurturing home, whether on a short- or long-term basis, all while receiving a financial allowance. There is a type of fostering to suit each person’s individual circumstances. While some people foster in addition to their existing work (by offering respite or Supported Lodgings), many foster full-time, and we are here to work closely with you to help you find out which type of fostering is the right fit for you. We appreciate that fostering can be a career as much as it is a vocation, so we provide all the necessary training and support you need to help you care for a child, who may require targeted support based on the trauma they may have experienced in the past.

Put your experience to good use

As an empty nester, you bring a wealth of life experience, acquired through years of parenting – through the toddler years, transition from primary to secondary school, through to exam pressures and beyond. Don’t let all that experience go to waste! Become a Foster Carer and use your parental skills to have a lasting impact on the life of a local child. Your accumulated knowledge equips you with invaluable skills to help you nurture, guide, and support children – skills that you may not have realised have such value. By becoming a Foster Carer, you can draw on your past knowledge to provide love, patience, encouragement, playfulness, acceptance, curiosity, empathy and stability to children who have experienced trauma. You could be the person they need in their life to help them reach their full potential.

Enjoy the joys of supporting a child

Fostering is not only about what you can give to a local child, it’s also a journey of personal fulfilment for you as a Foster Carer. Empty nesters who choose to foster find themselves enriched by the experience, gaining a deeper understanding of resilience, empathy, and what it means to help local children who really do need it most. Through fostering, you can find fulfilment, knowing that you have made a positive difference in the lives of vulnerable children. Our amazing local Foster Carers across West Sussex are a testament to this; you can read their stories here.

Fostering could be the perfect fit for you

If you think fostering could help you address that empty nester feeling, and you have the space in your home and heart to help a local child, we would love to hear from you. You could make a life-changing difference in the lives of children and families in West Sussex. To find out more, complete our online enquiry form, call our team on 0330 222 7775 or come along to one of our online information sessions.