In 2007, I was suddenly plunged into the role of caregiver for my then 75-year-old father, who had...
Category: Caring for a Parent
With Flowers
I’ve tried to tell this story before. Let me try again. This time with flowers. My mother died on...
The Agony of Putting Your Life on Hold to Care for Your Parents
Randi Schofield tried her best to not dwell on all the ways her life changed, on the pieces of...
I Took Over My Father’s Finances at 25. The Lessons Were Hard-Won.
Six years ago, I took over my father’s finances. ... I was 25 and had just moved in with my...
How to Embalm Yourself Before You’re Dead
Since Mother’s death, I’ve been mothering Dad the way I’ve always wanted to be mothered. I learned...
How to Deal with Irrational Elderly Parents
Some of the approaches for responding to regular aging parents apply to irrational ones too, while...
The Alzheimer’s Crisis in Indian Country
Alzheimer’s is on the rise across all Americans over 65, with one in nine people in that age...
How to Set Boundaries with a Narcissistic Parent
Adult children of narcissists often find independence by separating out and spending limited time...
How Do You Deal With a Narcissistic Aging Parent?
Caring for a loving and grateful aging parent can be overwhelming at times. So, imagine what it’s...
Can I Refuse to Care for an Elderly Parent?
Caring for our parents as they age seems like the obvious way to repay them. Yet, some people ask:...
The Dangers of Caregiver Martyr Syndrome
Do people act as if you're choosing to do all that you do? And choosing to have no time for...
The Silent Epidemic Affecting Generation Z
as of 2020, more than one in six Americans was actively responsible for the daily needs and...
The Switzerland schedule
“Your mother,” he told us, “has multiple sclerosis.” Whatever that was. I carried on with my day...
As she nursed her mom through cancer and dementia, a tense relationship began to heal
In March 2020, Lori traveled to Florida to help Audrey move into an assisted living facility, a...
How to Rescue a Grieving Friend
Before my father’s decline, he was a preeminent scholar of Black religious history. As brilliant...
On #dementia TikTok, family caregivers find support and bring the disease to light
"My mom was taking care of her mom, who had Alzheimer's, [and] not telling anybody how hard it was...
Am I Obligated to Look After My Insufferable Mother?
My mother has an undiagnosed mental illness that makes her incapable of accepting reality and that...
Careers and Caregiving: An impossible juggling act?
My story speaks to the structural constraints on faculty members in “the sandwich generation” and...
Becoming a Caregiver When Your Parent Wasn’t There for You
Family caregiving is commonly viewed as an act of love. So much so that the phrase "caring for a...
The Mental Load of Being a Sandwich Generation Caregiver
Writer and musician Tanuja Desai-Hidier lives in a multigenerational home in Maine with her aging...
You Do Not Owe Your Parents
There is a type of adult-child and parent relationship that rarely ever works out. It’s the one...
We need to address society’s unrealistic view of caregivers
Who cares? When picturing a caregiver, the person who comes to mind is almost invariably female....
At 29, I wasn’t prepared to be a caregiver. Life had other plans
I was on the subway headed to a friend’s comedy show on the Lower East Side when I received a call...
The philosophy of selfhood became real when my mother got dementia
At first, my mother, the poet Anne Atik, had seemed just ordinarily confused. Then, very...