Sharing wisdom that comes from parenting our parents
Managing the daily realities of caregiving is a balancing act. Between managing medications, navigating insurance bureaucracies, and handling daily personal care, the workload is inherently heavy. Our primary responsibility often boils down to managing the ordinary, messy details of life. Superheroes exist only in fiction. Out here in the real world, caregiving requires practical execution, …
Continue reading "Caregiving in the Loud Lane: Filtering the Noise to Find Your Calm"
One of the most jarring moments in dementia caregiving is not just the anger. It is the language. A parent who never swore suddenly uses profanity. A spouse who was always gentle blurts out crude or shocking words. The once-reserved loved one yells something that feels completely out of character. If this has happened to …
Continue reading "When Anger and Language Come with Dementia"
Mom is mad at me again. I did not give her the response she wanted from me and she got angry. Angry enough to hang up on me, only to call again the next day. Dementia strips away a lot of the filters we all use to be civil in society. It has been said …
Continue reading "The Low-Hanging Fruit of the Emotional Response"
Caregiving is great at pointing out the impermanence of things… whether you were interested in being confronted with such lessons or not. Lots of things have endings. Movies, meals, and books all have finite boundaries that we accept when beginning any of them. Seeking out the adventures contained within such activities provides us with the …
Dad's Back 