Navigating the Emotional Journey of Becoming a Caregiver for Your Aging Parent

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 22 percent of adults in the United States care for an aging friend or loved one as a family caregiver. Caring for an aging loved one is a beautiful sign of love and respect, but many people don’t realize how much time and work is involved before becoming a family caregiver. Understanding the role of a family caregiver and how to transition into the role can help you manage your new position should the time come for you to care for a loved one.  

What Does It Mean To Be A Family Caregiver?

A family caregiver is a person who provides care to a relative. Providing care can include a range of assistance from light housekeeping and cooking to mobility assistance and transportation. Some family caregivers may also assist with financial planning and other personal matters.

Family caregivers are often not trained or compensated and provide care out of love for their family members. While there’s much courage and nobility in caring for a loved one, the lack of professional preparation can make the transition difficult.

An essential distinction to note when considering family caregiving is that caregivers often work full-time jobs and manage family and social obligations outside their caregiving responsibilities. This collection of responsibilities can quickly lead to burnout. The burnout potential is why it’s important to transition into a caregiving role easily and understand what you’re dedicating yourself to before jumping in.     

Tips To Transition Into Your Caregiving Role

Before taking on a full-time role as a family caregiver, consider these tips to help ease your transition so you can provide your loved one with the best possible care. 

Start Slow

Many people get into family caregiving because of a big shift with their family member, such as a diagnosis or accident. Emotions are high in these situations, and it’s common to want to take control of everything and make yourself available 24/7. However, as much as you may want to do everything for your loved one, start slow and take time to evaluate what your loved one needs.

Taking things slow is especially helpful if your loved one gets a progressive diagnosis such as dementia. They probably don’t need 24-hour assistance immediately, and you don’t want to overwhelm yourself or them with taking everything over. If possible, start with one or two days a week helping your loved one for a few hours with house tasks or running errands. As their condition progresses, you can slowly start providing more assistance as they need it. 

Set Boundaries 

It’s normal for family caregivers to want to help their loved ones with everything. In some cases, this may lead to overprotection or overcautiousness, and you may commit to more than you can provide. 

Before you take on the family caregiver role, talk to your loved one about boundaries. Boundaries are great for preventing overstepping and ensuring you’re not overwhelmed. Boundaries can be small things like determining what you’ll help your loved one with and how often. Ultimately, your boundaries should act as parameters for balancing your role as a caregiver and a loved one.

Take Care Of Yourself

You can’t expect to care for another person if you’re not taking care of yourself first. It’s easy to get wrapped up in wanting to do everything for your loved one, but don’t forget to tend to your basic needs. Ensure you eat, get enough sleep, and drink water throughout the day. If you start to feel overwhelmed, take some time for yourself and engage in things that bring you joy. It’s important to remember that even if you’re a family caregiver, you still need to put yourself first and continue fulfilling your career, social, and family obligations outside of caregiving.

Caring for a loved one is emotionally and mentally challenging. Taking care of yourself may also include finding professional support, whether a family therapist or a support group. You can find support groups nearby through sites like FindHelp.  

Seek Support 

Family caregiving is time-consuming, especially if your loved one has limitations or health concerns that make it hard to care for themselves. Instead of trying to take on everything yourself, build a support system around you and your loved one to relieve some of the pressure and work from yourself. Talk to loved ones, whether relatives or neighbors and ask if they can step in to help provide care. If you don’t have loved ones nearby, consider working with a professional home care agency like Visiting Angels. 

Caregiving Assistance With Visiting Angels

Whether you’re looking for full-time, part-time, or temporary assistance in caring for your loved one, the team at Visiting Angels is happy to help. Our team of professional caregivers can help with various nonmedical tasks to ensure your loved one is safe and comfortable aging at home. Assistance can include light housekeeping, meal preparation, transportation, personal grooming, mobility, medication reminders, and more. 

Contact us to learn how the Visiting Angels team can provide peace and comfort to you and your aging loved one.