A Reality Check For Caregivers

Carol O'Dell, author of Mothering Mother: A Daughters Humorous and Heartbreaking Memoir, has written an excellent article over at The Caregiver Blog that is a stark reality check for caregivers who are too invested in their caregiving experience for their own good. She has a list of questions that all caregivers need to ask themselves and answer honestly and follows with a wonderful list of "permissions" letting them know that it's okay to not be perfect or have it all together. Read the whole article and pass it on to anyone you know who could benefit from it - which is pretty much anyone who is charged with caring for another human being.

Thanks for the link from Carol Bradley Bursack over at the Minding Our Elders blog.

Information Motherlode

I found out about this site that is absolutely chock full o' great information for older adults and those who care for them. The downside is that it's specifically targeted for Florida residents but there's still a lot of mighty good information for seniors in general. Check it out, you may find just what you're looking for.

Finding teh Funny

One of my most favorite Bible verses is Proverbs 17:22 - A merry heart is good medicine but a broken spirit dries up the bones. A person who can't see at least a smidgen of funny in most of life's circumstances risks a broken spirit and dried up bones. Sometimes you have to wait for time to wear the sharp edges off before you can find the humor in a situation but if you can find it, you'll go a long way toward redeeming a difficult circumstance.

Carol O'Dell gives a wonderful account of finding the humor even in the midst of the stress of caring for her mother who had both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases in her book Mothering Mother. I had the pleasure of hearing Carol spoke at a conference I was involved in earlier this year and her story is, as she says, both heartbreaking and humorous. I highly recommend this book for it's insight, hope and inspiration for folks who care for older adults in general but especially for daughters facing the particular speed bumps in caring for their mothers.

Welcome

Welcome to "Feedin' Mama" - a place for conversation, encouragement and resources for those of us who are caring for an elderly parent, other relative, friend or neighbor. Care giving can be daunting, challenging and frustrating while at the same time it can be the most fulfilling of tasks you will ever undertake. My purpose is to draw from my academic, professional and personal experience to help other care givers and to learn from you as well. I believe that it will become a place of refuge, support and hopefully answers and solutions to some of the dilemmas we all run into when the roles get reversed.

I chose the name "Feedin' Mama" because one of my biggest challenges in caring for my 89-year-old mother is her diet. She has frequent episodes of congestive heart failure so she has to adhere to an extremely low-sodium diet. That meant that I had to stop serving almost any kind of processed food. When you start looking at those labels it's mind blowing how much sodium is in that stuff, so it's almost all fresh or frozen in my kitchen these days. Being a moderately creative cook I've come up with a decent repertoire of tips and recipes that I'll share from time to time in this space and I welcome yours as well. But there's so much more to taking care of an older adult, especially a parent and we'll talk about a lot of them, too so I hope you check in often.