Setting Boundaries With Aging Parents: Care Without Losing Yourself

Do you ever feel ovewhelmed in trying to be available for your aging parents while trying to keep your own work/life/family together? You want to be a loving adult child, but some parents can be very demanding. They might expect you to be at their beck and call and you feel gulity if you say you can’t come right now or whenever they demand your presence or attention.

The Need For Boundaries

Setting limits on what you will and won’t do is essential if you want any kind of balance in your own life. First, it’s important to recognize for yourself where those boundaries are. Look within. When do you feel most overwhelmed or resentful? It is being interrupted when you are working? Dealing with your own kids or other family who need your attention? Too much contact and demands? Find your boundary there. If you wish to limit incessant demands for you to visit and do errands, for example, you can approach this with specific words. For example: