Coping with Un-Cope-Able Parents, Loving Action for Eldercare Coping with Un-Cope-Able Parents, Loving Action for Eldercare

“The Wits-End Caregiver”

Yup, that’s exactly how you feel. Forget sucking it up! Try some real tips and tools based in lived experience so you stop feeling like a burnt-out triple-decker grilled cheese sandwich. Your courageous advocate Carol-Ann says it like it is. And that’s no bologna!

groundhog day

Groundhog Day & Eldercare

On February 2nd, Reuters reported this year’s prediction from Pennsylvania’s most famous groundhog – Punxsutawney Phil.  Emerging from his burrow at 7:25 a.m., Phil saw his shadow and foretold six more weeks of winter.  In contrast, Canada’s rare albino weather foreseer Wiarton Willie indicated an early spring.

Then there’s the movie named after this eagerly-awaited event across North America.  In Groundhog Day, weatherman Phil Connors seems doomed to endlessly re-live February 2nd.  At first, he struggles to escape a dismal fate.  Ultimately, he uses his hopeless situation to learn new skills like piano playing and ice carving.

So, how do marmots and this film connectRead More

new year

Is 2015 your year to stop hair-yanking over frustrating elderly parents?

Do you burn tons of energy “psyching up” to deal with your impossible aging parents but still feel like pulling out your hair at the roots within seconds?

Do you regularly clamp down on what you really want to say to the difficult duo?

Are you physically and emotionally exhausted for hours afterwards, even if you only spent minutes by phone or in-person?

As we stand before a brand new year, you get to determine how the next 365 days will go.  Are you genuinely ready for those mindsets to be over?  To get clear, you need to honestly answer 3 vital questions.Read More

save face

Let Them Save Face

Want to hear the continuation of how we handled “taking away” the car keys from my 88-year-old father?

One clue is we never had to “go there”.  And, I knew we would not have to, in the end.

Even though he gave no outward indication of inner knowing about hisRead More

An A to Z That Works!

COPINGOpt-in6As we prepare to segue from “Observe” into the last focused ACTION called “iNnovate”, I just want to reference something I regularly express with my contemporaries.

My incredulous statements start with: “Surely our folks must recognize we see through their thinly-disguised veneer.  Don’t they?” [Their heads move side to side in a “no”.]  I go on to question:  “They must be deluded that we’re not adults in our own right but still think of us as five years of age!” [Now, heads nod in a “yes”.Read More