I saw similar in a place I wasvisiting one time the couple was so excited to have taken in this little girl, had fostered other children yet their refridgerators (2) packed full of drippy oozesfood spoiling and fresh mixed together, kitchen counters etc completely cluttered sticky. Bathroom, rest of house was cluttered and unclean that some places just had pathways. I wondered how they ever got approved being they just got the very young girl a week or two before. Habits like that do not happen in a week, it was their lifestyle.
I don’t understand it, either. I have friends who adopted two little girls, the husband’s great-nieces, a few years ago. They live in a trailer home, not fancy but a totally decent place to live. They had to make a number of changes before they were allowed to adopt. “Clean” wasn’t enough.
They also had to go through background checks and the like although both of them work jobs that require that, anyway.
You are right about the lifestyle. I was in a home a couple of years ago that was very hoarded and dirty. The woman said “I haven’t got around to cleaning lately.” From the looks of the place, she hadn’t cleaned any time this millenium.
For far too many ‘foster care parents’——that money paid by the system to ‘care for’ the kids is their INCOME.