When Family Disagrees About Senior Home Care Choices for a Parent
If you want to see a family that has unending patience with each other, stays together through any situation and has unconditional love for each other, you’ll want to watch reruns of The Waltons. But if your family is similar to most, there’s at least some degree of dysfunction, some leftover mulish sibling rivalry, as well as a certain amount of lingering competitiveness to be Mom’s and Dad’s favorite. As parents’ care needs increase and the family once again has to band together to support them and possibly make senior home care choices in Broward County for them, old childhood hurts can resurface and family dynamics can be exacerbated.
Clinical psychologist Craig Grether shares, “When there is a family crisis with a parent, the adult children, no matter how educated they are, no matter how successful, with a variety of life experiences, they regress to the same dynamic of whatever was going on when they were 7, 8, 10, 12 years old.”
The truth is, roughly 40% of family care providers have significant family conflicts, and 65% think that caregiving needs are generally unequally shared among siblings. Discord typically develops when there’s a perception that one family member isn’t pulling his or her weight when it comes to meeting the proper care needs of an older loved one – reigniting any earlier family dynamic issues that until now might appear to have been buried. With family caregivers at risk for such challenges as depressive disorders, alcohol or other substance abuse, insomnia, and career challenges, it’s reasonable to see how rapidly emotions can surface between family members.
So how can family members band together and develop a plan of care that’s fair to all? The conclusion: sometimes it’s really not possible, and it’s necessary to come to a place of acceptance that your younger sibling may not be capable, for whatever reason, to handle looking after Dad at the level you’d like. Releasing preconceived expectations and also any feelings of resentment is vital to obtaining peace for yourself and to be able to focus on giving the absolute best care for your older family member.
Whatever your family’s dynamics, Responsive Home Care, provider of the best elder care in Fort Lauderdale, is on hand to provide a steady, trustworthy resource to ensure that all caregiving needs are fully fulfilled at all times. We work with family members to fill in the gaps in caregiving, allowing them to concentrate on spending quality time together and relieving the worries often connected with meeting a senior loved one’s daily needs. Contact us at 954-486-6440 to learn more.
