Right when you think you have a routine down, life comes with a curveball. After most of the country was forced to stay indoors for health reasons, many people found themselves without jobs to support their families. They also found themselves caring for loved ones more often. You may be now one of the millions of people taking care of their parents after challenging times came knocking at the door.
You probably want to do everything you can to help your parents age with grace, but while this can mean that you end up feeling stressed from time-to-time.
We owe it to our parents to give them the care they deserve. When our parents hit a certain point that they have to rely on us.
Here are some ways you can make the most of being a caregiver to a parent.
Taking Time for Yourself
It’s as important to recognize when you are struggling. It is essential to give your parents what they need, but if this is impacting your abilities to be better children in the situation, you have to reach out for help. There are resources like careasone.com that can help us find caregivers in our local area. And this respite can give us the opportunities to figure out what is missing in our lives. It may very well be that we haven’t had the opportunity to exercise recently. And when we take that little bit of time for ourselves, we can go back to our parents feeling rejuvenated and be better caregivers.
Giving Your Parents Mental Workouts
We’ve all seen the cliches associated with getting old, such as sitting in a chair and doing nothing. What kind of life is this? And the decline of cognitive function is something that needs addressing as soon as possible. Giving our parents mental workouts by teaching them new games or encouraging them to join social outings can have a positive impact on age-related cognitive decline. In fact, active seniors were 2.6 times less likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer’s disease!
Keep Them Connected
Social outings are so important for everyone, and after all the lockdowns we’ve experienced or continue to experience, we can only imagine what it’s like for those who have been cooped up in a care home for months on end! It’s important to keep your parents connected and social. While older parents might struggle to get out and about like they used to, we’ve got to do what we can to minimize isolation. It doesn’t have to be anything complex. In fact, alturalearning.com has some suggestions for senior social activities that are simple. Help your parents to find outlets that suit their interests and attitudes. Something as simple as a coffee morning or a lunch date can give them the enthusiasm to see out the rest of the week.
Encourage Movement
Getting older means we lose muscle mass, and a sedentary lifestyle means more visits to the doctor. You don’t need to send your parents to the gym. Any form of movement will help to delay disease. Walking is simple, but gentle activities like tai chi are also useful. Even if your parents struggle with limited mobility, water workouts or hydrotherapy and chair exercises can help.
I hope these tips help you take better care of yourself and find more effective ways to care for those you love.
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