Caregiver Stress, Caring For Aging Parents

Sometimes it starts with a few simple tasks. You, the adult child agree to help Mom or Dad get to doctors’ appointments. Then you have to step in so they can keep their medications straight and take them on time. It’s supervision. But gradually your responsibilities increase as your aging loved ones decline. You need to hire caregivers and they need your oversight. Over a number of months or even a few years, you find yourself in charge of round-the-clock care management. The gradual increase in your duties takes its toll.

Dutiful adult children want to do what is right for their parents. They take on parent-related tasks that occupy a lot of time. This leads to stresses that may remain unaddressed, as the caregiving adult child also must balance their own life responsibilities at home, at work and elsewhere. Health experts uniformly advise that if we don’t manage our life stresses adequately we will pay the price in our bodies and our mental health. If this sounds like you, consider these things: