Soon after my 50th birthday, 10 years ago, I started keeping a list of “Things I will do/things I...
Category: Caring for a Parent
Sandwich Generation: How Do You Decide Whose Needs Come First?
Your parents need your help right now, and so do your adult kids. But what about saving for your...
Should I Help My Aging, Ailing Dad Access His Toxic Web Feed?
My father and I have not been especially close for all of my adult life because of his inability...
Queer Millennials Are Becoming Family Caregivers. We Aren’t Ready
The ache of watching a loved one grow smaller was hard enough. But I also wasn’t prepared for the...
Caring and Grieving in the Shadow of COVID
When my mother had brain surgery to remove a tumor in May 2020, I thought that was the most...
Healthy Helping for Family Caregivers of Senior Parents
Gerontologists and psychology of aging experts say that “aging well” in your 60s and 70s is about...
The staggering, exhausting, invisible costs of caring for America’s elderly
Some older adults have diligently prepared for their future. They purchased long-term care...
What I’ve Learned Over a Lifetime of Caring for the Dying
Some of the hardest conversations I have in my work involve telling families managing the...
A moment that changed me: my mother died – and I became my brother’s legal guardian
It was in Stansted airport’s Pink Elephant car park that I realised all the adults were going...
My Mother, Before She Drank
My older sister and I eventually decided to involve our aunt to help figure out a way to save her....
My Aging Parents Need Parenting
I’m in my 30s and live about a three-hour drive from my 60-year-old parents—we once used to live...
Don’t Let a Loved One’s Health Problems Come Between You
I’ve seen people with difficult-to-manage physical and mental health conditions (or hard-to-break...
Why Are Boomer Parents Always Withholding Important Family News?
The only time Taylor has ever felt her mother withheld information from her was when doctors found...
The Crisis in Home Care
Kara Ward started her life as a caregiver earlier than most people do. She was only 29 when her...
Chinese Cooking Helps Me Connect With My Mother—And Helps Me Prepare to Lose Her
The words that I could not bring myself to admit bubbled to the surface: I have been preparing for...
The Story Of Britney Spears Is A Story Of Disability Rights
A conservatorship — often called a guardianship — puts a court-mandated guardian in charge of...
The Crushing Weight of ‘Sandwich Caregiving’
When Sade Dozan discovered she was pregnant, her parents moved closer, with the intention of...
My Parents Got Sick. It Changed How I Thought About My Marriage
In April of the pandemic, my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. It was not an optimal moment...
Don’t You Want Somebody to Take Care of You?
Gina became a caregiver at a young age. By age 6, she was emotionally responsible for her mother,...
Dad, a Death Sentence and the Planner Who Set Us Straight
During my dad’s illness, I experienced firsthand what had, until then, just been book learning:...
‘We Are Going to Keep You Safe, Even if It Kills Your Spirit’
In other care facilities and in hospitals, too, “wanderers” with dementia are believed to have...
Making the Mental Load Visible
Too often we compartmentalize our caregiving — childcare, aged care, sick care, disabled care. Yet...
The Day His Journal Went Blank
Almost five years ago, when my father was 62, he learned he had Alzheimer’s disease. Over this...
Fairplay at Home w/Eve Rodsky
This episode is part of a series about care. About the value of care. And we’re going to focus...