As soon as we learned a new baby was on the way, Mike’s anxiety became more than an occasional...
Category: Millennial Generation
Born between 1981 and 1996, millennials are likely to have young kids at home while caring for a partner, sibling(s), parent(s), and grandparent(s). We’re likely to be caring for someone who isn’t legally our family, limiting our access to support. We’re also likely to have our own health issues to manage while trying to build our careers.
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...
‘You’d walk out if your husband hit you – you can’t when it’s your child’
Most parents never have to worry about being attacked by a violent child, but if it happens, they...
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....
“I need you to just be there. I need you to hold my story.”
In September 2020, I watched from afar as Andrew and his wife, Rachel, announced that their infant...
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...
A Daughter’s Diagnosis and a Refusal to Give in to Despair
The diagnosis stalked us for two years before it stepped into the light one warm March morning....
The Crisis in Home Care
Kara Ward started her life as a caregiver earlier than most people do. She was only 29 when her...
Rosie Could Be a Riveter Only Because of a Care Economy. Where Is Ours?
Infrastructure “of a country, society, or organization,” according to the Collins Dictionary,...
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...
You Robbie, You Baka
I knew twins sometimes switched places and went to each other’s classes, waiting to see who’d...
Caregivers are Over Your Toxic Positivity
I stopped buying into the veneer of toxic positivity once I became the primary caregiver to my...
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...
Emma Dowling examines the mantras of self-care and what they tell us about our anxieties
As the care crisis intensifies, we are repeatedly urged to take care of ourselves. Ubiquitous,...
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,...
We Needed More Significant Others
After multiple biopsies over many weeks (Scott said he felt as if he were an Ikea desk being...
The Health Insurance Plot Is the New American Happy Ending
The Health Insurance Plot is a cousin to the Marriage Plot, which refers to a story that concludes...
We need a queer and trans revolution in care for older adults
I’ve spent the past decade and a half feeling afraid of where I might end up living when I get...
On Alternative Forms of Communal Care and Expanded Kinship Circles
We need not look far to find cultures where caring kinships have been arranged differently....
What I wish I’d known
My 21-month caregiving ended a couple of months ago when my mother passed away. Since that time, I...
Living with My Mother’s Mental Illness
For my whole life I have lived in a family where transparency about my mother and her illness was...
My Mother Has Dementia. Here’s What I’ve Learned From Caring For Her For 8 Years.
I was 27 when I left my first full-time job to care for my mother when she was diagnosed with...
How we dealt with uncertainty and a virus
How we dealt with uncertainty, And a virus in our life, For fifteen years. And emerged as...
Stolen Years: Learning How to Fight Lewy Body Dementia
A month before my grandfather William passed away, I sat beside him in the hospital, pushing a...