Family caregivers have a lot of responsibility each day. You have jobs, pets, children, friends, and homes that need you. You also have your mom and dad in need of help. It can seem hard to balance it all. Team up and it’s not that hard.

Discuss Your Responsibilities and Schedules

Have a family meeting where you talk about the different things you have going on in your life. If work’s been tough and you’re working 50-hour weeks, make sure your siblings know it. Someone might have the time to take on extra chores while you focus on your job.

Be sure you listen to everyone else, too. Pay close attention to what their schedules and responsibilities are. Keep thinking of ways you can help out.

Flexibility counts for a lot. There will be weeks and months where things change. If you wake up and don’t feel good, make sure there’s someone else who can jump in and take over. If you’re down with a stomach bug, you can’t go spread it to your parents. You need to stay at home. This may require you to schedule respite care services from time to time.

Involve Your Parents

Talk to your parents about their care needs. Make sure they’re doing as much as they can to maintain their independence. They should ask for help, but they shouldn’t have you doing things they are capable of doing.

Your mom can vacuum the carpets, but she always asks you to. You may need to start saying no and making her do it herself.

Use Online Planning Tools for Scheduling

Tools like Google Calendar help out with scheduling. Set a color to represent family care items and give permissions for others in the family to add and view entries. If your mom has a dentist appointment, everyone can check the calendar and see who is driving her. If there’s a note that no one has time, someone can sign up for that special task.

Planning apps also make it easy for people to see what has and hasn’t been done that day. If your dad takes his medications at 2 p.m., the caregiver can check it off so that others know it’s happened. Use calendars to track medications, to-do tasks, meals, and appointments.

Don’t Forget About Hiring Professional Caregivers

There’s still one more part to the dream caregiving team. You need to balance the care your parents get from different family members with caregivers from a home care agency. Caregivers give you the chance to go out and be social, take vacations, and step away from being family caregivers from time to time.

If you or an aging loved one is considering caregivers in Ashburn, VA, please contact the caring staff at Assisting Hands today. (703) 782-3655.