The 8-year-old told me that her friend at school is in foster care because her parents committed suicide. I asked her if she knew what suicide was. She nonchalantly answered, "Yeah, both her parents killed themselves."
Another little boy we met is in foster care because his mother died of cancer, his father terminated his rights, and his relatives are unfit (like, people getting shot in the home because of who they hang out with).
But the majority of foster care situations I'm aware of are due to abuse or neglect, and many times those things happen because of drug abuse or alcohol abuse. People are no longer able to put their children first because of their addictions. At the alternative high school where I teach, I tell my students all the time to break their drug and alcohol habits now because the addictions get harder to fight, and a lot fewer kids would end up in foster care if their parents had kicked the habit in high school. No one starts a family thinking that they'll lose their kids because they can't handle their recreational activities. Everyone thinks they can quit drugs or alcohol if they really wanted, whenever they wanted, even today if they wanted to--but they're still having fun and/or coping that way.
I have one piece of advice for my high school alternative students, for teenagers in general, and really for anyone who still has their reproductive organs intact: (A) never start drugs if you haven't yet, or (B) quit drugs as soon as possible if you already have. Do it for someone besides yourself, even if that someone hasn't been born yet. And for those people who don't have any kids and don't have any reproductive organs or any desire to adopt or be around children for the rest of their lives: I guess you can do drugs if you want.
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