ABSTRACT
Mrs Arnold is now in her 60s. She has always lived in the same town, on the south coast of England. She lives with her husband, who is retired, but he used to work as an electrician. She started private fostering in 1978. She had four of her own children at the time, aged between 12 and 19, and was missing having young children to look after. One of her friends from the area had been privately fostering children, and told Mrs Arnold about a magazine where parents advertised for foster carers. The parents were mostly Nigerian students, living in London. She got a copy from the newsagents, and through the magazine she contacted a Nigerian couple with a three-week old baby girl. The couple came down the next day and left the baby with her. When the baby was six she went back to live with her parents, but two years later they called to say they had a new baby and would Mrs Arnold look after him, which she did. There was never any shortage of parents wanting a foster carer: Mrs Arnold’s name would get passed on, and new families would phone to ask if she could take their baby. Sometimes she could, and sometimes she couldn’t. One boy came at a few months old and didn’t leave until he was 18. Mrs Arnold thinks his parents went back to Nigeria. She has lost count of the number of children she has fostered over the years. She still has three children with her: their ages are seven, four and a half and eight weeks. The parents all know each other. Mrs Arnold says she does it because she loves children. Her dream is to win the lottery, buy a big house and fill it with children.1
