Posts filed under ‘elderly parents’
Oh Weight!
It’s that time of year again, when I excitedly clean out my closet and begin to think about 
buying new outfits to wear. Normally by this time, I have started my Lenten fasting and am comfortable looking at myself in the mirror. This year is a little different. During the fall and winter months, I was busy going back and forth to the various hospitals and nursing homes that took care of my father. I thought about eating healthy foods and tried, but I really found that food made me feel…better… while I processed the fact that my father was dying.
As I attend my different women’s conferences and workshops, I look around and notice my heavily figured friends and associates who too are carrying extra weight. I can’t help thinking how many are care givers for ailing parents or family members, and just don’t have the will power or time to eat a healthy meal. How many of us are emotional eaters? When I think about women like me, I think about all the issues that increased weight brings to us in the way of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer. O
kay! I’ve got my own attention again. No more candy and I suppose I can give up cookies too!
Interested in learning more about your health or your family’s dynamics? Contact me – Ms. Parent Guru to receive information about my inspiring parenting programs for Aging parents, Mothers and Daughters or Mothers and Sons. Email me at: info@clynnwilliams.com
C. Lynn Williams, #MsParentguru
Author, Coach & Family Dynamics Specialist
www.clynnwilliams.com
Trying to Stay Sane While Raising Your Teen (St. Paul Press, 2010)
The Pampered Prince: Moms Create a GREAT Relationship with Your Son (St. Paul Press, 2012)
Raising Your Daughter Through the Joys, Tears & HORMONES! (220 Publishing, 2013)
NEW Yours & Mine: The Winning Blended Family Formula (220 Publishing, 2015)
Are You Asking Me to Parent You Too?
If you are part of the sandwich generation, this article is for you… 
The sandwich generation is a generation of people who care their aging parents while supporting their own children. Sound familiar? This phrase fits me too and I didn’t realize it until my dad casually told me (during one of our conversations) that he had gotten lost coming home from one of his daily errand runs.
“What do you mean you got lost?” I asked. “Well there’s a lot of construction going on in the area I was driving in, and I didn’t recognize where I was.” Now my mind is on fast-forward and I’m wondering what kind of changes will I need to make to insure his safety? Is he starting to experience early onset of Alzheimer’s? All of these thoughts are running through my mind. “So, how did you make it home?” I asked. “I stopped at Target; told them where I live and got directions home. I also bought a new juicer.” OMG!
You can only imagine all of the things that were running through my mind! Want to know my biggest concern? How would I start to guide and instruct my dad in ways that would allow him to maintain his daily routine and manage the times when he gets confused? By the way, my dad is 83 years old, lives 900+miles away from my sister and me, and doesn’t own a cell phone. And he is not accustomed to being told what to do by his daughter, and it feels awkward parenting him too. So I walk a fine line between parenting him as I would my own children, and treating him with the dignity and respect that I’ve always given him as my parent. 
I reached out to Alzheimers.org to research dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and how to prepare for changes in my daddy-daughter relationship. Click here for 10 Early Signs and Symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
Interested in learning more about generational parenting? Contact Ms. Parent Guru to receive information about her inspiring parenting programs for aging parents, Mothers and Daughters or Mothers and Sons. Email her at: info@clynnwilliams.com
C. Lynn Williams, #MsParentguru
Author & Generational Development Strategist
Trying to Stay Sane While Raising Your Teen (St. Paul Press, 2010)
The Pampered Prince: Moms Create a GREAT Relationship with Your Son (St. Paul Press, 2012)
Raising Your Daughter Through the Joys, Tears & HORMONES! (220 Publishing, 2013)
Love Isn’t Always Easy or Convenient
Love Isn’t Always Easy or Convenient
Both of our parents are elderly. My dad is 81, and my mother-in-law is 79. The good news is that they both live on their own. However, even though they both live alone, one is experiencing temporary memory loss, while the other has been diagnosed with early stages of Alzheimer.
While visiting Dad, I found myself treating him like one of my children. It felt very odd to remind him to do things, that I took for granted he did. Yet, like my kids, he needed reminders to do what he normally would do (without my help). Take eating healthy. Dad is a big proponent of juicing, exercising and eating moderate amounts of food, yet he’s consuming more sweets than ever seen before. Looks like lunch has been replaced with coffee and a sweet something or other. Another thing, every couple of weeks he’s having something new repaired on his car. When I ask him why, he says, “I want my car to run well.” It already runs well… I’m concerned that he’s wasting his money, or worse, TV ads are convincing him to spend money unnecessarily.
You’re probably saying, hey that’s not a big deal! He can still take care of himself! Well what happens when he forgets (again) how to get to the VA Center, which he has driven to for years? Or how do you tell your elderly mother, that you have to take her car keys because she continues to get lost and has to have someone call you because she doesn’t know where she is? Loving your parents means that you care for them, (and make those hard care decisions) when they can no longer care for themselves.
C. Lynn Williams, #MsParentguru Author & Parent Coach
Trying to Stay Sane While Raising Your Teen (St. Paul Press, 2010) The Pampered Prince: Moms Create a GREAT Relationship with Your Son (St. Paul Press, 2012)
Raising Your Daughter Through the Joys, Tears & HORMONES! (220 Communications, 2013)
Staying Sane While Raising Your Teens 
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