CONTENT WARNING - This episode contains discussions about Fostering; Children With Difficult Childhoods; Mental Health Issues and Life Limiting Conditions. If this will be difficult for you to listen to, please choose another episode.

Rachel is joined by Lucy today, as they continue to explore families and the different forms that families take.

In particular they focus on fostering, and how that can feel from both a fostered child’s perspective, and that of a foster carer. They are joined by Dave May, listener to the podcast, father to two daughters, very proud Grandad and a foster carer for two decades.

Dave talks through the experience of both short term and long term placements, his family’s experience of fostering disabled children and moving from fostering to shared lives when children reach adulthood.

Dave reflects on the additional complexity when fostering disabled children and the wealth of experience gained from fostering 27 children. He also shares his top ‘Sh*t Things Practitioners Say’ (We told you he was a fan of the podcast!)

For more information on shared Lives, and Fostering, please follow the links below:

Shared lives information

Fostering network

We’d love to hear from you – we love sharing stories, we love hearing how things are going, the good, the bad, the snotty-crying ugly.

You can leave a message with us in a number of ways:

• Firstly you can leave a message using speakpipe here: SpeakpipeTSWU

(Please note calls need to be limited to 90 seconds)

• You can send us a voice note from your phone to our email address at tswupodcast@gmail.com
• Or, if the thought of hearing your own voice gives you ‘the ick’, then send us an email to tswupodcast@gmail.com

Whatever way you choose to get in touch, we really want to hear your thoughts, views, musings, rants and confessions (we love a confession!) .

Thanks for listening and being a part of our podcast community -It would make our day if you could like, follow and review the podcast wherever you listen.

Follow us on Instagram @BornatRightTime. Head to www.bornattherighttime.com to find a parent workshop or CPD-certified training for practitioners in communication, collaboration and personalised care with parents/carers.

Join Rachel for Episode 4 of The Skies We’re Under podcast, this week we’ve swapped out two Mum’s in exchange for two Dads (Brendan Jones and Tim Wright) - to get a different perspective on life as a parent of a disabled child.

Whilst they cover many well trodden paths: the pain that can come with comparison, rubbish message delivery and the clanger of ‘special children get special parents’ they illustrate a slightly different story.

Brendan and Tim focus on the difficulties of adjusting the life you had imagined, to the life you have whilst dealing with the traditional roles that Fathers often (but not always) fulfil. From focussing on practical support, to ‘making up’ on the weekends, they consider the ways that stereotypically male ways of coping, can both help, and hinder.

There is plenty of reflection on finding the right communities of support around us, including the fantastic charity 'Unique', to how to talk to those who ‘get it’ and those who don’t, and just how sometimes you need to just get away from it all.

We’d love to hear from you – we love sharing stories, we love hearing how things are going, the good, the bad, the snotty-crying ugly.

You can leave a message with us in a number of ways:

• Firstly you can leave a message using speakpipe here: SpeakpipeTSWU

(Please note calls need to be limited to 90 seconds)

• You can send us a voice note from your phone to our email address at tswupodcast@gmail.com
• Or, if the thought of hearing your own voice gives you ‘the ick’, then send us an email to tswupodcast@gmail.com

Whatever way you choose to get in touch, we really want to hear your thoughts, views, musings, rants and confessions (we love a confession!) .

Thanks for listening and being a part of our podcast community -It would make our day if you could like, follow and review the podcast wherever you listen.

Follow us on Instagram @BornatRightTime. Head to www.bornattherighttime.com to find a parent workshop or CPD-certified training for practitioners in communication, collaboration and personalised care with parents/carers.

Join Rachel, Sarah and Lucy for 'Part Two' of our episode on siblings. They reflect on the discussions with their children, and the unique insight that siblings of disabled children have, that are so rarely heard.

They discuss the heartbreak, the admiration for how bloody lovely they are, and their honesty (some stories they heard were new to them).

We’d love to hear from you – we love sharing stories, we love hearing how things are going, the good, the bad, the snotty-crying ugly.

You can leave a message with us in a number of ways:

• Firstly you can leave a message using speakpipe here: SpeakpipeTSWU

(Please note calls need to be limited to 90 seconds)

• You can send us a voice note from your phone to our email address at tswupodcast@gmail.com
• Or, if the thought of hearing your own voice gives you ‘the ick’, then send us an email to tswupodcast@gmail.com

Whatever way you choose to get in touch, we really want to hear your thoughts, views, musings, rants and confessions (we love a confession!) .

Thanks for listening and being a part of our podcast community -It would make our day if you could like, follow and review the podcast wherever you listen.

Follow us on Instagram @BornatRightTime. Head to www.bornattherighttime.com to find a parent workshop or CPD-certified training for practitioners in communication, collaboration and personalised care with parents/carers.