Meet Marie
Marie knew she still had a lot of motherly love to give to children who needed that in their lives, so decided to explore a career in residential childcare.
How did you start working in children’s homes?
I started working in children’s homes because I knew that I still had a lot of mothering, love and nurture to give to children that needed that in their lives, and I wanted to show children who hadn’t been given a good start that they could have a real good life in adulthood. I had so much to offer still.
What does a day in a home for you look like?
A typical day working in a children’s home is you will come into work, you will say good morning to the children if they’re there, and to the team. You would have a handover where you get told how the previous shift has gone with the children, whether it’s been productive, it’s been good, what they’ve been up to, and then you take over and just run the home as if it is a normal everyday home.
If the children are at school you get everything you need to do, like prepare dinner. You might have meetings with the schools or with the social workers just to make sure everything’s okay for the child and the young people. You pick up the children from school, bring them home, they have their dinner, they have a chat, we talk around the dinner table as a normal family, and then they’ll go off and do some activities. Some will go swimming, some will go to the cadets, some will go to gymnastics and cheerleading. Come home, settle for the night, have a nice bath or shower, settle the young people and get them into bed.
What do you think the children and young people need that children’s homes provide?
I think the needs of children that are in the children’s homes are the need for feeling loved, secure, and safe, because without feeling loved, secure and safe they can’t embrace being a child, being care free, develop naturally as every child is entitled to, can enjoy life, achieve their goals and aspire to be the best person that they can be.
The children come from all different backgrounds. There’s no one child that’s the same. Some children come from backgrounds where their parents are unable to provide them a secure, safe and loving environment due to their own mental health needs, or lack of understanding of how to care for a child. So the child will end up in the care system, and then while the child’s in the care the parent might be getting the support and eventually the child may go back to the parent. Some of the children that come into the care system may have been affected by abuse of some form, and they will need a lot of love and nurturing care from us. We do try to provide authentic parenting in the home to give the support and the love that they need to help them from the trauma they’ve experienced previously.
What’s the most rewarding part of your job?
The most rewarding part of this job is knowing you are making such a difference to these children’s lives. Some have come from horrendous backgrounds and suffered such trauma and they’ve not experienced the kindness and the love of another person, especially a parent figure. So knowing that we are able to provide that and give them that love and support and nurture, and that safety, is so rewarding. You see it in they eyes. They give you hugs, they give you kisses. They say they love you and they look forward to seeing you when you next come on shift. “When are you next on? I can’t wait!”
When you go out with them and they have no experiences and places they’ve never been before – they’ve never been to the beach before and you’re taking them, just seeing their faces light up.
And then they’re doing so well in education. We’re big on education, making sure that they can achieve their learning potential. They come home with certificates and good reports. It makes you so proud that they do that when they’ve probably previously struggled before they came to us. So that is the most rewarding part of the job.
What’s the most challenging part of your job?
The most challenging part of this job is it can be emotionally charged, and sometimes emotionally demanding. The children that come in can have emotional needs and need the extra support. This could either be verbally or physically. You have to be one step ahead, always thinking ahead to try and navigate through a child’s day. They may experience fluctuations in mood.
You get to know the young child, so you know how their behaviours are going to be, or how they’re going to respond to a certain situation. So you try to alleviate that as much as you can, avoid and be proactive rather than reactive with them.
What’s been the most memorable experience so far?
There’s one child in my career that I remember, who really struggled with her emotional needs and she was unable to express them verbally, or in a positive way, so she would express them physically and quite a lot. I did lots of work with this child. Not only did I support her through going to school and doing activities to help her, we did lots of work about how to deal with emotions and how to express them in a positive way rather than a negative way, and I actually ended up having up a really good relationship with that young girl. She was doing really, really well when I was in her particular home. So she’s a good story for me, a good journey.
What are you career plans for the future?
For myself and my future in working with children’s homes, I am really happy in the job that I do. I am working towards management within the care homes. I just enjoy what I do and I can’t imagine doing anything else really.
What would you like to say to someone watching this who is thinking about working in a children’s home?
If you were thinking about working in a children’s home or in children’s care, I highly recommend it. If you have the love and the support to give to another person, it is the job to go for.