I am really ticked off at the moment.

For 2 1/2 years I have had a major issue with the care that my children are receiving in foster care. A lot of it has been centred around their health and hygiene.

One constant battle has been head lice. The last excuse from the carer for not regularly checking the girls' hair for lice was "They are always at their mother's place"... The biggest load of BS I have ever heard. Especially as at that time I was seeing them for 9 hours a week.

There are 168 hours in a week - subtract 9 and ignore sleep - that leaves LOADS of time for the carer to spend 5 minutes checking hair. LOADS of time when my children were NOT with me.

My 6 year old was found on Friday to have another bout of head lice.

Also on Friday, my 8 year old had coated her dress in Coke. The dress went back to the carer (obviously, as my daughter was wearing it) but it never got washed. It was returned to me yesterday with even more stains from Friday showing on it.

I had a go at the CSO about it yesterday. I said to the CSO that I would appreciate it if my girls' clothing is laundered before it is sent back to me. I told her that the carer had had 4 days to put it through a washing machine. I reminded the case worker that I have almost no clothing here for my girls and if I need to put clothing on them from what has been returned to me, I can't be expected to dress them in filthy clothing. I also said that I make sure any clothing belonging to the carer is washed before it's returned if it's filthy.

Then I showed the CSO the dirty dress as well as the party dress that my 6 year old had worn that was also grubby.