ParentMap Magazine

May 2017

My mother gave her children the two most important gifts for a child’s early life: growing up in a loving home and doing chores. In other words, she gave us unconditional love, security, competency, independence, resourcefulness and self-reliance. 

Sounds simple, right?

Not so!

That’s especially true if you’re one of the 10,068 Washington state children living in foster care. This month’s cover story will hopefully debunk age-old myths about foster kids and inspire your family to assist in whatever way you can. Step in lightly and donate hours or dollars, or take a deep dive and aspire to fostering as many kids (114!) as Erika Thompson (“Let’s get real about foster care”).

Finally, confirming my mother’s good-enough parenting approach a solid 50 years later is Kimberly Arthur of Seattle Children’s. Arthur juggles 4-year-old twins born at 26 weeks while being a clinical research scientist. She offers “compassion to go” to parents of children with health conditions or disabilities and along the way reminds us of the power of our year’s mission, #kindfulness (“Someone you should know”).