Care for a Parent

Many adult children between the ages of 30-45+ are searching for adequate & trustworthy care for they’re ailing and/ or aging parents. Let’s face it, we all cannot quit our jobs to care for our parents even though some would love too but how would bills be paid?! There are the children who can and rather have their parents in facilities that can offer 24/7 care and then there are children that think that it’s best for their parent/parents to stay at home in their own comfortable surrounding s and have a nurse/caregiver come to the home and provide care on a regular.

Me, myself when faced with that challenge, offered my mother, who was diagnosed with a rare cancer, stage 4 while I was in the u.s. Army, to come where I was stationed so that I could take care of her and my little sister, who was 8 years old… She woefully declined, because she felt tat she would be a burden on my military career. Well, I ended up being discharged honorable with a family hardship, and moved in with my mother and became her caregiver. That journey is what lead me to becoming a nurse, and I remember her constantly asking me to promise to never put her in a home, and I held true to that!

Being a caregiver for a loved one is a lot of work mentally more than anything else and sometimes those caregivers need & deserve a break! Keep in mind that it’s actually healthier for some to be in their own home/environment, because it promotes independence and that is #1 priority for seniors or those that have a long-termed illness. My experience working as a charge nursing a long term facility and having the experience to care for my mother at home, it is suggested, if possible keep your loved ones at home and hire someone to care for them at home!! They both have their pros and cons, but the pros totally outweigh the cons hands down. Find someone who can be trusted to take care of your loved one(s) as if they were their own family member or loved one, someone who has personally experience, someone that you feel is honest and trustworthy right from the onset of you interviewing them. If you are the sole caregiver, it’s ok to get respite relief, we all need a break and should not feel as if we are neglecting or abandoning our duties, it’s a healthy choice to say, “hey I need a little me time!” It’s a healthy choice that affects you & your loved one(s), on a positive note… Trust!