Who I Am
Like so many of you, I have spent more than a decade trying to be the quintessential model wife, stepmother, successful marketing executive and tireless caregiver to parents with multiple health issues. Quite honestly, I was on the brink of a breakdown. While feeling blessed to be able to provide my parents with care from someone they knew and trusted, I had not quite realized the issues I would encounter, the hard decisions I’d face, or the sacrifices I would make in navigating a system that deprioritizes the elderly.
Whenever I came across resources for primary caregivers of aging adults, few addressed the concerns of family members fulfilling caregiving roles. The U.S. healthcare system assumed that the senior citizen in need of care or the caregivers themselves possessed the financial resources to hire qualified help. There was no consideration for families whose household budgets required them to learn critical caregiver skills on their own