The State Duma wanted to limit the number of children in foster families

People’s representatives are concerned about reports of violence

People’s representatives are preparing a bill according to which, if adopted, the number of children in foster families will be limited. Three children in one hand, only if orphans have brothers or sisters, they can also be accepted additionally, but this is an exceptional case.

The parliamentarians explain their initiative with the purely popular question “how long?” It really was boiling. Reports of bullying and violence in foster care are, unfortunately, constant. Children are starved, beaten with amazing cruelty, and even deliberate self-mutilation. The last straw was violence against adopted children in the Ulyanovsk region: the grandson of a female guardian “punished” the orphan by shooting him in the leg with a construction stapler. After the incident, other details of upbringing in a large family became clear: children were used as labor at construction sites and on farms. In essence, my childhood was stolen.

It was precisely the case in this family, where more than 20 children passed through the hands of adoptive parents, according to Ayrat Gibatdinov, a member of the Federation Council from the Ulyanovsk region, that became the final reason for the new bill.

Of course, not all adoptive parents are like this; many conscientiously fulfill their duties in raising children, care for them and love them. But the number of sad cases can be explained very simply: foster families receive money and, it must be said, not a small amount. Parents raising foster children receive a teacher’s salary. In addition, children are given a one-time and monthly allowance. The amount is different for each region, but in Moscow, for example, adoptive parents are paid about 30 thousand rubles per child every month. For a disabled child – 10 thousand more. In the regions, the amounts are smaller, but still very significant. You can live happily with this money! And if you consider that some foster families are raising up to two dozen children, then it’s not difficult to count the money in someone else’s pocket.

Therefore, deputies admit that today there are often cases when unscrupulous adoptive parents take pupils from orphanages solely in order to live on benefits and payments. As a result, children not only do not receive care, warmth and love, but sometimes become victims of violence from household members who are unable to cope with the hard work that they, blinded by the thirst for easy money, as it seems to them, have taken upon themselves. There is another sad result of such inability of adoptive parents to calculate their strength – the return of children to orphanages. Having realized that they cannot cope, foster mothers and fathers (officially they are called educators in foster families) are often forced to return their wards back. Yes, parents are scratching their heads at this, but children suffer much more. They receive such trauma, which can then destroy their entire future life.

Of course, raising foster children is without a doubt worthy of this payment. But human resources are not endless. Any mother will tell you that even one child can drive you crazy. At other moments, I just want to exclaim the sacramental: “I gave birth to you…” I think everyone knows the continuation.

So, maybe it’s really worth legislating to cool down the ardor of adoptive parents? At least as an experiment. Maybe we shouldn’t tempt people who don’t have the opportunity to earn good money with the possibility of such earnings? In the draft law, deputies plan to stop at three children. However, if the adopted child has brothers or sisters, the number of children in one family may increase. Regarding such families, you can study the experience and then gradually increase the threshold. But will there be people willing to work as parents for an average salary of 60,000–80,000 rubles? Will the good idea of ​​foster families, designed to replace the soullessness of orphanages with family warmth, become a matter for a few devotees? Big question.