Balancing Care for Aging Parents and Children Balancing care for aging parents and children is at the heart of what defines the Sandwich Generation—a growing group of individuals caring for their aging parents while raising their own children. This role is both rewarding and challenging, often leaving caregivers feeling stretched thin. Understanding the demands of this…
Everyone slips up and says the wrong thing from time to time. Perhaps your objective was to compliment a friend on her new haircut, but you came across sounding like you were criticizing her previous hairstyle. Selecting our words carefully is always important, but even more so when speaking with a person with dementia. The…
What do family caregivers need? That’s a question family caregivers probably don’t get asked much. If you’ve ever felt invisible as a family caregiver, you’re not alone. Caring for someone you love takes center stage, and you may find that your own needs are put on the back burner. A recent listening session, however, allowed…
After losing a loved one, the last thing you want to do is complete a list of to-dos. The pain and loss alone are overwhelming enough. Taking the time to sort out your grief is very important. Yet there are, unfortunately, a number of tasks that need to be taken care of, at various intervals…
You’ve been taking care of Mom since her dementia diagnosis. You’ve been working through many of the challenging symptoms. However one day, she looks at you and calls you by a different name – that of her husband or younger brother or father. Do you correct her, reminding her that you are her son? Should…
If there is one particular positive after-effect of the pandemic, it’s the attention generated for family caregiving. Managing work and home life has long been a tremendous challenge for anyone caring for a senior relative. As Lindsay Jurist-Rosner, CEO of Wellthy, explains, “Caregiving went from a silent struggle to being in the spotlight overnight.” Employers…
As a family caregiver, you no doubt encounter a range of emotions throughout the day: shared laughter over a joke with your loved one; worry over a health concern; and certainly, from time to time, frustrations. We want only the best for those we love, and when an older adult is resistant to doing something…
Recently, actor Rob Lowe brought family caregiving into the spotlight by sharing his story of caring for his mother and the toll it took on his own life. He explains, “When you’re caring for a loved one, there’s nothing you won’t do to give them as much comfort and peace of mind as you can…
We’ve all known helicopter parents, particularly when a son or daughter goes off to college. The fact is, we might be guilty of hovering a tad too closely ourselves. Discovering that appropriate balance between caring and overstepping our boundaries is not very easy. And now, due to the added number of sandwich generationers providing care…