In 2007, Louise Ruyg realised she probably wouldn’t have children.
At 43-years-old, her maternal instincts were strong as ever with an immense desire to care for and involve children in her life.
As a single lesbian, she believed her options were bleak until a friend suggested she contact the Department for Child Protection and try out for foster caring; an idea that Ruyg admitted she doubted at first.
‘I came into it with a desire to have my own children and that didn’t eventuate,’ Ruyg said.
‘I absolutely thought the department wouldn’t take a single lesbian as a foster carer but it turns out they do.’
Ruyg came from a family of 11 children, having grown up in Ballarat, Victoria. Her parents were Dutch migrants who settled in regional Victoria. Then at 20-years-old, Ruyg packed her life into the back of her Toyota Crown and drove across the Nullabor to Perth.
‘I thought I could be a foster carer since I have nine younger brothers and sisters and I grew up looking after kids … but foster caring is really different to looking after your own children or someone’s you know,’ Ruyg said.
‘They’ve had challenges that other children haven’t so they need special care and what has been brilliant about foster care is the training I’ve done through the department.’
With just under three years experience in fostering, Ruyg has cared for 15 children from as little time as a weekend to as long as eight months. At the moment, she works as a respite carer giving other parents and carers short breaks to re-energise from the full-time role of raising children.
But even people with support roles such as respite carers need help and assistance. The support Ruyg receives from the Department for Child Protection and the Foster Care Association of WA has been an invaluable source of relief.
‘There is training; coffee mornings and the Foster Care Association of WA who provide information and support,’ she said.
‘It’s important to know what my needs are, what I can fit into my life and what I can handle as a single parent. I only take on what I can sustain.’
Ruyg isn’t just a foster carer though. She is a motorcycle enthusiast. She volunteers taking children living with a disability water-skiing and continues a successful career as a framer.
‘I manage to juggle it… Fostering is about my heart and being really responsible for children but also playing with them, it’s very demanding but it is very rewarding,’ she said.
There are currently 3,205 children in WA under state care while there’s only 2,207 registered carers. According to the Department for Child Protection, the number of children coming into care is increasing, while the number of carers isn’t growing fast enough. Department for Child Protection spokesperson Luke Bolton said the state was in desperate need for more foster carers.
‘We’re not asking foster carers to be super people, it’s to provide fundamentally what has been lacking: safety, security and love,’ Bolton said.
‘Just give them those three things and these kids will flourish. It’s not that hard, it has just been absent from their lives.’
Fostering, as Bolton described, is a labour of love that requires a bit of elbow grease initially.
‘The assessment process does take a while and you have to do the training,’ he said.
‘We want to make sure they are going to a safe place. So the assessment process is thorough.
‘It’s not a cash-cow; the subsidy is there to offset, not to cover the costs of fostering. You’re doing it for love, not your mortgage.’
Talking of mortgages, Ruyg recently put her small Perth CBD home on the market to buy a bigger place so she can foster more children at a time.
She now laughs off the early reservations she had about foster caring as a lesbian.
‘I feel like I’m treated with the same respect every other foster carer gets and it’s really about a child who needs a place,’ Ruyg said.
‘On a daily basis, it’s just sharing love with a kid.
‘Gays and lesbians can do it just as well as anybody else. If you’re a bit older like me or you just don’t necessarily want to go through their own pregnancy, I’d recommend it.’
For more information about fostering in WA, visit www.childprotection.wa.gov.au or call 1800 024 453.
Benn Dorrington
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