Kiri Pritchard-McLean shares the experience of becoming a foster parent in her latest tour Peacock.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely this
00:06afternoon to speak to Kiri Prashad-McLean. And goodness, you've got an important show
00:11on the road under the title Peacock, which doesn't really give away too much what it's
00:15actually about. You're talking about how you started foster caring, and that's a wonderful
00:20thing to have done, which it sounds like, well, it's changed things for you, hasn't
00:25it?
00:26Yeah, of course. I think anyone who has children come into their life under whatever guise,
00:31you know, whether that's biological or, you know, stepchildren or kinship foster caring
00:34or foster caring like us, that is going to have a huge and quite profound, you know,
00:38effect on your life. And it has, it has done for my partner and I, we've been doing it
00:42for just over three years now. And yeah, we love it.
00:46But it's such a massive step, isn't it? What made you think you wanted to do this?
00:51Yeah, I guess it was a massive step from two people without their own children to go into
00:57being foster carers. But, you know, we heard an advert on the radio, and it just said,
01:00you know, get in contact, you know, if you've ever thought about having children in your
01:04life, which, of course, we had. But I've never, and my partner's the same, actually, never
01:08really had the desire to have a biological family. And that was never very important
01:12to me, I think, because there's a lot of adoption in my family, my father was adopted and things.
01:16So I've never associated biological children with love. It's family I think of with love.
01:20So yeah, we got in contact, and the social workers are brilliant. And we did loads of
01:24training, and they answered all our questions. And at every point, I think we thought they're
01:28going to say something that puts us off. And it was quite the opposite, actually. So we
01:32went through that process that was about a year, and then started doing it. And yes,
01:36it has had a big impact on our life. I think when you do the training as well, it's such
01:40an eye opener. You know, I work in the arts, I'm very lucky. I'm around some very lucky,
01:45privileged people. And you can forget how tough life is for people and how the odds
01:51are stacked against lots of groups of people in our country, and even as wealthy as it
01:55is. So I think it's a good reminder as well that, you know, that we are in a very privileged
02:00position. And then you've got to ask yourself, what do you do with that?
02:03And has it told you things about you? Have you learned things about you? That's a deeply
02:07pretentious question to ask.
02:10Oh, no, I love a pretentious question.
02:12Well, there you are, there's one.
02:14I think the thing I have found out is, I think I would be a very, very bad biological parent
02:22if I was 24 seven having to do it. But I can be a very good, very engaged with no phones,
02:28full teamwork, my partner and I, I can do that brilliantly for a few days. And I, I
02:34start to not recognize myself when I've had, you know, when we've had, like our friends,
02:38children stay and we'll look after them for a very long time. And you just start to feel
02:42bits of yourself, you know, as you're tired and there's lots of questions and, oh, what's
02:46happening for food? And we've got to keep them entertained and we want them to be nourished.
02:49It's a lot, isn't it? And so I think that the kind of standard I would want to perform
02:54being, you know, a parental figure, let's say, I think respite foster care is the perfect
03:01mix for me.
03:01You've found the perfect thing for you. Well, lovely to speak to you and good luck with
03:05the tour and good luck with everything. Thank you.
03:07Thanks so much.