ABSTRACT
W HEN a couple decide to take a foster child into their home, it is usually with the expectation that they will gain certain satisfactions by doing so. These may be of many different kinds: a new emotional relationship, the satisfaction of giving happiness to an unfortunate child, the prestige which the possession of children can sometimes bestow-occasionally financial gain. The applicants may have a clear appreciation of their own motives, but not infrequently they are seeking to satisfy emotional needs of which they are partly or entirely unaware. In thinking about and discussing the plan, they naturally begin to visualize the ways in which their family would be modified by the addition of a foster child; their anticipations tend to become crystallized into a pattern of roles which they hope the child will fill. Intending foster parents usually expect that the child they have applied for will be a person who will welcome their love and respond affectionately to them. The foster mother may anticipate the satisfaction of tending the child and so earning his love and gratitude; the foster father may see himself playing with him, and enjoying his companionship. It is natural that they should expect the child to be a responsive person, to whom they can show affection without fear of rebuff.
