“The fact that he feels comfortable enough to call me dad, I don’t think there is anything better.” - says new foster father from Edinburgh

Richard Stewart was born and raised in Oxgangs and became a foster parent in 2017 with Fosterplus.

After the first child placed in his care was able to rejoin their mother the 51-year-old businessman began caring for a nine-year-old boy at the beginning of 2019.

When the schoolboy arrived at Mr Stewart’s Blackhall home he was “very traumatized” and felt “uncared for”.

Mr Stewart said: “When he arrived he had experienced a high level of trauma and upheaval in his short life.”

Having struggled in school due to his turbulent home life the young boy lacked confidence and found it hard to play with other children.

Mr Stewart said: “He had not experienced any activities, or played with other children. He has a lot of anxiety around tackling new tasks, caused by a fear of not succeeding quickly.”

Unable to cycle or swim Mr Stewart decided to involve his new foster son in as many new activities as he felt comfortable with.

Together the pair tackled new challenges and with time the lad grew in confidence and started enjoying the challenge.

Now a keen outdoorsman the duo regularly hike the hills together, ride their bikes and go swimming in the rivers.

After a year together Mr Stewart has received ‘permanence’ which is similar to adoption and allows the young boy to stay in his care at least until the age of 18.

Having found a safe and stable home to grow up in the young boy has started referring to Mr Stewart as ‘dad’.

Mr Stewart said: “The fact that he feels comfortable enough to call me dad, I don’t think there is anything better.”

Now retired from the motor industry Mr Stewart said becoming a foster parent is the “most rewarding” experience he has ever had.

While this young lad has found a forever family there are many children in Edinburgh still living between temporary accommodation.

Scotland required hundreds of more foster parents and Mr Stewart would like to see more single men like himself think seriously about fostering as an option.

He said: “We need 500 new foster families in Scotland and I would like to see more single men getting in.”

“Fostering is still seen as something a woman or a couple would do but not a single man, there are very few single men as foster parents.

“There is definitely a stigma around fostering as a single, male carer and it’s something that I have had to overcome.

“Nowadays there are so many men working in nursing and care for the elderly and I would like to see that change in fostering too."

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