In the present master's thesis, the author researches the emotional experience of the foster mothers towards their foster children. The first part of the thesis touches on the topic of the legal aspect of the implementation of foster care, ways of obtaining a license to carry out the profession, the work of social services when determining the suitability of the foster family and the conditions the foster parents must fulfil (education). There is also represented the family, its chores, challenges with which it faces, its involvement in collaboration with social services, individual working group, work with biological parents of the foster children, the disburdening of the foster mothers and what they bring to the family relations. In the empirical part the author used the phenomenological method based on the research of the personal experience of certain phenomenon. With half-structured interviews the author received information about the experience of the foster mothers in relation to their profession, and afterwards, with the help of coding, she followed five obtained questions. The results of the research showed how the foster mothers experience their work, their personal stance towards the foster care profession, the emotional experience of the children, their stories, the difficulty of this profession, worries, challenges that surface and the support of the families when going through difficult times. It was discovered that all the foster mothers are very grateful for their experiences, none of them regrets taking care of someone else’s child and they are proud of the strength, the courage and the personal growth that this profession has given them. In the beginning the emotions of the foster mothers fluctuated from enthusiasm to worrying how the child is going to join the family. They started their journeys, the acceptance of a new family member, with courage, but also with pain and disappointment when facing the obstacles that appeared on the way. Most of the negative feelings foster mothers experienced when finding out about the difficult life stories of children. They also expressed some criticism towards the foster care system in Slovenia and insufficient visibility of it, for instance there could be more public lectures or workshops where the profession of the foster parent would be evaluated as an essential way of helping children in need. The most positive feelings were expressed towards the satisfaction of already-independent foster children returning to their foster families, which shows positive consequences of the foster care. For the participants of our interviews this represented a reward for a job well done.
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