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.

I have difficulties when it comes to clothing for my son.
I used to have lots of clothes for him but because he spends 1 night with me I have to dress him in clean clothes and send back the clothes he has come over wearing because if i dont the carers complain that i dont return the clothes they buy for him.
They never send underpants or socks, telling my son that he has already left all his undies and socks a my place (which is impossible as he always returns to their home with the exact clothing in his bag, mostly it is sports uniform including sport uniform socks so they have to be returned with his uniform for the next week) And the clothes that they have started sending are horrible. They dont match they, look old and tired, and when i have him wear things i have brought for him, that look nice or have a name brand, they wont return them. Also to this when i ask my son about these items he tells me he is not allowed to wear them!

My mother brought my son a tuxedo for a wedding we attended, I requested the carers return it to me. They claimed that they couldn't find it!! so he must not of taken it to their home or they had already returned it.

I think that this is one of the things carers try to do to make us look bad.
Expecially if the carers (as in my situation) have gone to court against you becauser they want to KEEP your child.

The carer of my girls never sends underwear if the girls need pyjamas for putting on after a bath. Rarely do I see underwear in the bag for them and that's after I've checked to make sure pyjama tops/bottoms are also in the bag.

The carer is very slack in putting BOTH pieces to pyjama sets in for them.

The carer's common excuse that I've heard for over 2 years now is that she "doesn't have enough time".

Well, if she can't manage her time properly, she better start making moves to stop having so many kids on her care.

For 2 months now I have been asking for my girls' clothing and toys to slowly make their way to my place so that I can put them away and sort through them... I am lucky to get a bag of stuff a month.

I said to the new CSO just before Christmas that there is NO reason why my girls can not be instructed to pack stuff into bags themselves... They are old enough to have that responsibility... The CSO agreed.

Really, there is NO excuse for it.

My issue is that I spent over a thousand dollars EACH on my girls to buy them clothing, shoes etc. That's a heck of a lot of clothing!!

Christmas 2007 they got mountains of gifts... They each had 4 rubbish bags of stuff that went to the carer's place.

My point is that space in my house is limited and I can't afford to have bags and bags of stuff lying around waiting to be sorted through... It would lead to a dangerous situation... So I need to have it all brought bit by bit so I can sort through it and bypass the chance of anyone getting hurt due to lack of space.