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Home Caregivers Facing New Challenges In Today’s Culture
Like many other home caregivers near Leucadia, you might feel like taking care of your elderly parents is a dizzying maze of doctor’s appointments, rehabilitation tasks, housework, outings, and other responsibilities. If so, take comfort from the fact that your situation could be even more prickly!
Consider the unique circumstances of a long-divorced couple that continue to care for the same set of parents.
Special Circumstances: Home Caregivers Who Are Divorced
Chris and Adrienne were married and had each lost one of their parents. Chris’s father and Adrienne’s mother then decided to marry, at the ages of 61 and 75 respectively.
Fast forward a few years, and Chris and Adrienne’s own marriage had ended in divorce. Even as they went their separate ways, however, the two continued to cooperate as needed to help their parents. Fortunately, the elderly couple is still relatively independent, but Adrienne, a correspondent with the New York Times, writes that she is nervous about the inevitable need for more constant care.
Home caregivers in San Diego County are familiar with the feeling that their parents seem more like children than the strong, authoritative figures that they were for most of their lives. Chris and Adrienne continue to have a relationship that is centered around caring for their parents, just as many divorced parents do with their children. Even though they live on opposite ends of the country, they still work together to help their parents and visit them during the holidays.
Siblings Acting Together As Home Caregivers Sometimes Face Similar Challenges
The case of a divorced couple caring for the same set of parents is rare, but many home caregivers near Leucadia are well acquainted with a similar situation: siblings working through the challenges of managing the care of their parents. Each person has slightly different ideas about what is best for their loved ones, and the resulting discussion sometimes puts a strain on the relationships between family members.
When the “siblings” are two people who have ended their own marriage, the tensions are understandably higher. Interestingly, the two in question are technically step-siblings through the marriage of their parents!
Take Heart – If They Can Do It, So Can You!
Family members and in-home caregivers in Leucadia and elsewhere should take heart from this story—if two divorced people can set aside their disagreements for the sake of their married parents’ well being as they need increasing care, anyone can do it. Bumps in the road will invariably turn up, but giving back to parents who have given so much to us is far more than worth the trouble.
Original article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/fashion/i-am-my-own-in-law.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Originally posted 2012-02-21 10:30:13.
