Foster Care on TV

Foster care is a real life issue that people believe looks good in a TV plot. There are many shows and movies that have characters in them that were part of the foster care system. This week, I wanted to focus on two popular TV shows that I am currently watching.

The first show I want to focus on is The Fosters, which airs on ABC Family. The Fosters focuses on a multi-cultural family headed by a lesbian couple. Four of the five kids in the family are foster kids that they have either adopted or are living with them. The show touches on issues like abuse by foster parents and the messy emotions children can have about their biological parents. Two of the foster kids, Callie and Jude, are taken in after being removed from an abusive home. The twins, Mariana and Jesus, have a biological mother who Mariana stays in contact with in the first season. Her mother is a drug addict who Mariana financially supported by selling Jesus’s ADHD pills. Coming together as a blended family is a major theme in this show.

Because the show is called The Fosters, the factual basis of the show has been analyzed. The show ignores many realities of foster care. It does not show all of the work behind being a foster parent or how often families interact with Child Welfare. The show does show many situations that could occur in foster care, but does not show how they would be reported to Child Services. One main complaint is the parenting in the show. People criticize the hands-off parenting of Stef and Lena, which contradicts typical foster parenting, which is more active and hands-on. The children in the show are also too unsupervised. Many states have rules that foster kids cannot be out alone, and if real foster parents were supervising their kids the way Stef and Lena do, their house would be shut down. Though not completely accurate, the show does shed light on some of the serious issues in foster care, including racial diversity, older children and siblings in foster care, adoption from foster care, and the frequency of placement changes.

Another show that contains characters who were foster children is Once Upon a Time. The show does not focus on or revolve around foster care, but the main character of the show was a foster child, and this can be seen in many flashbacks to her childhood. Emma, the main character and savior of Storybrooke, grew up in foster care. She also put her own son up for adoption so that he could live a life better than she lived. Growing up in foster care caused Emma to rely on herself, which causes her to block everyone out so they do not become close enough to let her down.

Once Upon a Time is said to put a negative light on foster care.The show portrays foster care and adoption as not being a solution. Emma had a very negative foster care experience. Emma describes the parents in foster care as only doing it for the money, which is a real-life issue in foster care. The show had Emma bouncing from home to home, and then once aging out, turning to a life of crime. Though negative, these are still major issues that can result from foster care. People are angered by Emma’s negative experience in foster care, believing it makes the system look terrible as a whole. The truth though is that many of the situations Emma went through are true issues that do result in foster care. Though they are not the only outcomes, they are the ones that people still need to look towards changing. The show also constantly points out that Henry’s adoptive mother is not his real mother. The show does, however, show Regina, Henry’s adoptive mother, constantly saying that she chose to adopt Henry and look after him regardless of whether she is biologically related to him or not. Though foster care is not always accurately portrayed on TV, the plots surrounding it do bring awareness to the real issues of foster care and how the kids in it are affected.