Daughterhood Updates
When Your Parents Won’t Listen
We asked Daughterhood readers recently about the most stressful part of caregiving. Many responded that their biggest struggle is conflict with their parents. When their mother or father disagrees with or ignores safety or health-related directions. Things like not...
5 Lessons in Setting Boundaries that Every Caregiver Must Learn
It seems like I’ve been exhausted for 20 years. In just the last few months I’ve been waking up to the realization that this fatigue is the direct result of much-too-loose personal and professional boundaries. I’ve spent so much time and energy in my life doing things...
4 Tips To Make You Smarter About Your Parents’ Medicare
“My dad doesn’t have Medicare!” A friend said to me on the phone a few months ago. “What?” I responded. Thinking: This seems unlikely. Pretty much everyone over age 65 has some form of Medicare and my friend’s dad is at least 90 years old. Then he explained, “Dad has...
5 Common Misconceptions About Medicaid
I have a confession. I’ve been avoiding writing about Medicaid. It’s just so complicated it scares even me the expert. But Medicaid can be really important to daughterhood. Someday you might have to decide if it’s right for your parent. So, you have to get smart...
Throwing In The Towel: The 6 Most Important Questions to Ask When You Want to Quit Caregiving
I don’t know anyone who feels like they can just up and quit taking care of a loved one who needs it. The very nature of this role is that it’s not something you choose. That doesn’t mean that we don’t often, or even always, wish we could get off the caregiving train....
Caregiver’s Holiday Survival Guide
Let’s face it. Caregivers don’t get to participate much in the holidays. While everyone else is planning trips and parties, shopping for gifts or decorating the house, caregivers are still muscling through their daily grind. If you’re taking care of a parent or loved...
5 Dos and Don’ts for Staying Independent in Old Age
My inbox is filled with emails from caregivers trying to figure out how to pay for their parents’ care. They’re facing complicated and hard choices. The big choices? Whether they should quit their job, move a parent into their home to avoid expensive care, or pay for...
It’s All About Connection: Caregivers Survival Guide
Other than death of a loved one, few things are more disorienting than making the shift from being cared for by your parents to caring for them. This transition is made even more challenging because it usually comes as such a surprise. And it’s not just the...
3 Resources to Ease Caregiver Money Worries
In a recent survey, AARP found that about three-quarters of all caregivers spend, on average, 26 percent of their household income on caregiving. This is on top of the estimated $470 billion in unpaid care that they provide; and doesn’t include the potential lost...
3 Medicare Benefits You MUST Know About
“What do you mean Medicare doesn’t cover this?” My friend Sarah was caught off guard when I told her that her parent’s health insurance program doesn’t cover her parents’ care. What I explained is that there’s a lot Medicare doesn’t cover and one of the biggest gaps...