adult children

Reset Expectations

The challenges of caring for an aging parent are exhaustive and quickly exceed the capacity of one person. Caregivers need to adopt realistic and sustainable expectations about their capacity to avoid sacrificing their health for unattainable goals. Acknowledging limits on…

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And then an aging parent moves in…

When an aging parent moves in, no one can predict how it will work out.  What looks good in the beginning can come undone in sudden and distressing ways. Adult children need to frame moving in as “one step” in…

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The Real Work Of Families…

(As a writer, I always feel I’m best person to title my own articles, blogs and booklets. Of course, that’s just my willfulness not paying attention to better voices who have different take on what I have written.  And so…

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Sibling Rules

It’s a fact of family life: roles are cut in stone.  Stop trying to change a sibling who for the most part resents your audacity to assume you have the right to “fix’ him or her. Accurately assess what a…

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Magical Thinking

Feeling overwhelmed, aging parents may turn to magical thinking to solve problems.  Like denial, it allows them a way to defer the complexity and burden of a problem. Opting to continue unsafe driving, ignoring financial limitations or rejecting help with…

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