Other People's Kids

Ground Rules

You should be aware of a few items about how I plan to approach this blog. It will be a historical document. I have no reason to lie about anything I will write in here, and I don't plan to. I want it to be a compilation of my life for the next 20 years or more...one I can print out into a book when I'm old and gray and sitting on the dock fishing, and want something interesting to read. So everything I write in here will be the truth as I know it. I want to be proud of it, and I want it to remind me very accurately of "how it was then".

I have no idea how my style is going to come across in this medium in this situation. I envision a collection of incidents and stories a la James Herriot and his stories about being a Veterinarian, but how this sort of thing actually plays out is sort of hard to determine ahead of time.

I won't be able to give gory details. My parents protected me from those as I was growing up, but as an adult I've learned things about things that happened to some of my foster brothers and sisters in their homes that blistered my soul to this day. I don't expect the world has changed that much in a decade, except perhaps to make those kinds of things more common and not less. There will be ugly bits, and those I suspect would, for the most part, be best left out of this blog. They aren't the kinds of things I would prefer to remember too much later in any case, if I'm ever able to successfully forget them in the first place.

Names of social workers, foster kids, other foster parents, and other players in this production will be changed to protect their privacy. I will do the best I can with keeping consistent names attached to the actors, so I can weave a coherent narrative of events. I think my wife questions my sanity for doing this...so in self defense I'll just refer to her as my wife, or The Love Of My Life, or some other endearment that won't put me in the doghouse.

I will read comments as long as they remain manageable in my schedule (I have no reason to believe readership and comments will become large, but I've known other bloggers who became de rigeur for whatever reason and lost control of things). I will probably be sparing in my replies, not necessarily because I don't welcome comments but because anything I really have to say I'll put on the front page.

Email is welcome and read. Ones that aren't threatening, mean, or otherwise creepy will be replied to as time permits and opportunity presents itself.

I'll post as often as I have something to say that seems interesting to me. When I don't, I won't try to force it. That quickly kills the fun.

On with the show.

posted by Dan @ 9:00 PM