Consequent on youth protection reform in 2006, the law has set time limits on foster care. The main idea of the reform is to allow children who have been or are about to be abandoned to enjoy as soon as possible the requisite stable long-term living conditions to which they are entitled. This new approach, largely based on the attachment theory, has been strongly welcomed by the stakeholders involved. It does, however, present a challenge both to them and to the families concerned since these time limits introduce a dimension of urgency to the follow-up, something that the other legal principles involved may not always easily accommodate.