9781422280584

13

Family Troubles

extended family. Others are in foster care: more than 600,000 kids spend at least some time in foster care at some point in a given year. Kids who don’t live with their parents still feel all the same anxieties as kids who do. In fact, kids who don’t live with their parents often feel more anxiety than other kids, precisely because they don’t live with their parents. They have experienced family problems firsthand, and they may worry that a loss could happen again. Even though this book will use the word parents a lot, the issues being discussed apply to all kids and the adults who care for them. In the context of this book, it doesn’t matter whether you are related to your caregiver or not. The point is, you depend on your caregiver, and the thought that something bad could happen might make you anxious. That’s normal. This book will look more closely at some family fears and offer suggestions about what to do.

Research Project

Survey as many people as you can about what family fears they have now or had when they were younger. Ask people to rate how worried they were on a scale from 1 to 10. Tally your results— what are the most common fears?

Text-Dependent Questions

1. Why do kids worry about the safety of their parents?

2. What are some of the bad things that might happen to parents?

3. What percentage of American kids live with someone other than their parent?