When it comes to siblings and senior care, the dynamics can be complicated, but these tips can help everyone find balance.
As the saying goes, many hands make light work, and that is certainly true with regards to siblings and senior care. If you and your siblings work together in harmony to fulfill the needs of your aging parents, congratulations! In many instances, however, one sibling takes on the majority of the responsibilities. This can quickly lead to hurt feelings, misunderstandings, and conflict.
The following easy steps can help you more fairly distribute duties with regard to siblings and senior care.
- Call a meeting with your siblings. It’s important to make sure you and your siblings are all on the same page. Honest, open communication is crucial to expressing your outlook and hearing theirs. Clearly share that you’re feeling overwhelmed with shouldering most of the caregiving jobs, and therefore you’d appreciate more assistance.
- Come up with an inventory. Be specific about all of the duties that go into your role as the primary caregiver. Determine who is best equipped to provide support in each area based on time or distance limitations. Even if one of your siblings is located out of the local area, there are many ways to assist from a distance, such as exploring resources and services, setting aside scheduled time for FaceTiming, paying bills online, etc. In-person tasks may include:
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- Cooking meals
- Housekeeping and laundry
- Lawn care
- Grocery shopping as well as other errands
- Pet care
- Transportation to doctors’ appointments, the barber, weekly religious services, etc.
- Document details. As soon as you have agreed upon a good division of tasks, write down your decisions and present a copy to each person. Note any other important subjects that arose in your conversation so you can revisit those in subsequent meetings. Make sure to think through future planning needs as well. If one of your parents is in the first stages of dementia, for instance, you’ll want to be prepared for growing care needs as the disease progresses.
Despite having the help of your siblings, taking care of aging parents can be challenging, especially when keeping up with your own career, household, family, etc. One great way to guarantee a healthy life balance for you and your siblings is by working with At-Home Care Company, an award-winning provider of home care in Johnston and the surrounding areas.
Our caregivers are fully trained and knowledgeable in all of the care tasks listed above and so many more. We are here to work with your family to fill in the gaps in care – whether for several hours each week or up to around-the-clock support. This allows you and your siblings to choose the care tasks you wish to manage yourselves, and then leave the remainder to us.
Provide your parents with the very best care, while ensuring you and your siblings have plenty of time for self-care. Reach out to At-Home Care Company at 515-292-2650 for a complimentary consultation and for more information about how we can help.