There’s a moment every caregiver knows. You’re standing in the kitchen at 11 p.m., dishes still in the sink, tomorrow’s appointments written on three different sticky notes, and your body is begging for sleep. But your mind? It’s already running through the morning routine, the therapy schedule, the caseworker’s call you need to return. You love the child in your care—fiercely, protectively—but somewhere in the exhaustion, you’ve started to wonder if you’re enough.
Here’s what we need you to hear: You are enough. And you need a break.
The Hidden Crisis Among Those Who Care
Across Houston, Spring, The Woodlands, Katy, and Sugar Land, thousands of caregivers are living this reality. Currently, over 41 million Americans offer unpaid care to a relative or friend, and the toll is staggering. The overall median prevalence was 33.35% for depression, 35.25% for anxiety, and 49.26% for burden among informal caregivers—numbers that reflect what many already feel but rarely speak aloud.
For foster parents and kinship caregivers in Texas, the weight is even heavier. Approximately 37% of caregivers will experience burnout at some point, with foster parents facing even higher rates due to unique challenges such as navigating a complex child welfare system, managing trauma-related behaviors, advocating in schools, attending court dates, and often doing it all with little support or recognition.
These aren’t just statistics. They’re the single mothers caring for a niece who survived neglect. They’re the foster families loving children through night terrors and attachment wounds. They’re the kinship caregivers who said “yes” when family needed them most, not realizing they’d be managing medical appointments, IEP meetings, and court hearings alone.
What Respite Really Means
Respite care isn’t about abandonment or weakness. It’s about survival—and sustainability. Respite care is an invaluable resource that allows foster parents to rejuvenate and recharge, ensuring their ability to provide consistent and stable support to the children in their care.
Think of it this way: Family caregivers spend an average of 22.3 hours a week providing care, with many spending far more. That’s essentially a part-time job—except there are no breaks, no paid time off, and the stakes involve a child’s safety and healing. Without time to rest, the very people who are lifelines for vulnerable children become vulnerable themselves.
In Texas, respite care takes many forms. Respite care offers temporary relief to foster parents by providing short-term care for the foster child, allowing foster parents to take a break, attend to personal matters, or handle emergencies, knowing that their foster child is in safe hands. It might be a few hours with a licensed respite provider so you can attend a doctor’s appointment. It could be a weekend away to reconnect with your spouse. Sometimes it’s just one uninterrupted night of sleep.
The Ripple Effect of Burnout
When caregivers don’t get the respite they need, everyone suffers. Caregiver burnout is extremely common and can impact your mental and physical health and your ability to provide the best care. Children who’ve already experienced trauma need stable, emotionally available adults. But when you’re running on empty, you can’t give what you don’t have.
Nearly half (47%) of caregivers receive no formal support, such as financial aid, counseling, or respite care, despite 88% saying they need more help. This gap has real consequences. When a foster parent burns out the child is moved to another home, and has to go through the attachment process all over again—while it’s no one’s fault when this happens, this is avoidable with a little break once in a while.
At the AIW Foundation, we’ve seen it firsthand. We’ve walked alongside foster families in crisis, supported kinship caregivers on the edge of collapse, and counseled parents of children with complex trauma who couldn’t remember the last time they did something just for themselves. And we’ve learned this truth: taking care of yourself isn’t selfish. It’s how you keep showing up.
Permission to Rest
If you’re reading this and feeling the weight of guilt—guilt about needing help, guilt about wanting time away, guilt about not being superhuman—let us be clear: You are doing sacred work. As adults, we’re responsible for empowering the voices of children and meeting their needs. But you can’t pour from an empty cup, and martyrdom doesn’t serve the children who need you whole, not broken.
The assignment is to provide respite care to the foster families who already had placements and thus decrease the chance of burnout for the foster family. That’s the goal—not because you’re weak, but because sustainability matters. Everyone in ministry needs to take a break from time to time—pastors take sabbaticals and missionaries take furloughs, and even Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile”.
Here in the Greater Houston area, resources exist. Texas foster care agencies like ACH, Upbring, and others provide respite support for licensed families. Some organizations provide each family a “respite checking account” and deposit funds into it monthly—$40 for the first child and $30 for each additional child. There are respite providers who are trained and ready to step in. There are community organizations—like the AIW Foundation—that understand the unique needs of caregivers who are loving the most vulnerable children.
What Happens When You Say Yes to Rest
When caregivers access respite, something shifts. A 2001 study revealed that frequent respite care showed a correlation to decreased family conflict. Relationships strengthen. Patience returns. The fog of exhaustion lifts, even if just for a moment, and you remember why you started this journey.
And the children? They benefit too. Respite care allows a foster family to keep their child in their home for an extended amount of time and also teaches the child to form positive ties and relationships with others. Stability increases. Attachments deepen. The message they receive is powerful: “You are worth fighting for, and the adults in your life know how to take care of themselves so they can take care of you.”
We See You
To every foster parent in Spring who’s navigating trauma behaviors alone. To every kinship caregiver in Sugar Land who’s raising grandchildren while grieving what was lost. To every adoptive parent in Katy managing therapy appointments, school advocacy, and sleepless nights—we see you. The AIW Foundation sees you.
You are not failing when you need a break. You are human. And in a world that often overlooks the caregivers while focusing on the children, we want to be different. We want to support you, resource you, and remind you that your well-being matters. Because when you are healthy—emotionally, physically, and spiritually—the 1,300-plus children we’ve served, and the countless more across our region, have a better chance at healing.
Respite isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity. It’s the difference between surviving and thriving. And every child deserves a caregiver who’s had the chance to rest, recharge, and return ready to love well.
If you’re a caregiver in the Houston area who needs support, if you’re a foster parent wondering if respite is “allowed,” or if you’re simply tired and don’t know where to turn—reach out. Let’s talk about what rest could look like for you. Because you’ve spent so much time caring for others. Let us care for you.