Tips for Balancing Care and Your Marriage during National Marriage Week
Caregiver Drexel Hill PA
When you take on the role of being a family caregiver for your elderly loved one, you are committing your time, energy, effort, and resources to fulfilling your aging parent’s needs as they age in place. While this is a nurturing and meaningful way to show them how much you love them and that you want them to enjoy the highest quality of life possible, it can also take energy and time away from the other important things in your life, particularly your marriage relationship.
February 7 through 14 is National Marriage Week. This is the ideal opportunity for you to focus your energy and attention on balancing the caregiver efforts that you give your parent and continuing to support and nurture your marriage. This helps to support your ongoing mental and emotional health and well-being, reduces your caregiver stress, and helps ensure that you have a meaningful and fulfilling life waiting for you when your care journey comes to an end.
Use these tips to help you balance caregiving and your marriage during National Marriage Week:
• Express your feelings. When you are busy and overwhelmed it is easy to just assume that your partner knows how you feel. Everyone, however, needs to hear that they are loved and appreciated. Take time every day to express that you love your partner, that they are meaningful to you, and that you appreciate the role that they play in your life.
• Show physical affection. Everyone has the need for physical touch and affection. Put aside time every day to hug your partner, hold their hand, or sit with them to watch a TV show. These little moments of physical affection can be tremendously meaningful and help to keep your stress down, support better mental and emotional health and well-being, and support the strength of your marriage.
• Plan time with them. As a family caregiver your schedule is frequently busy and it can seem like your to-do list never ends. This can make it absolutely necessary that you plan the time that you spend together. Put it on your schedule just as you would any other task, errand, or need on your calendar and keep each of these “appointments”. This is your time to relax, spend time together, have fun, and take a break from the care efforts that define the rest of your day. Even if it is just eating dinner at home and then watching a movie once a week, this will be something to look forward to and enjoy.
Starting elder care for your aging loved one can be one of the most meaningful, compassionate, and effective decisions that you can make for your elderly parent throughout the course of your caregiver journey with them. An elderly home care services provider can be with your aging parent on a customized schedule that takes into consideration not just their individual challenges, needs, and limitations, but also their lifestyle goals, personality, and the amount and type of care that you are able to give them.
This means that they can stay safe, healthy, comfortable, and happy throughout their later years while also maintaining as much independence, autonomy, activity, and fulfillment as possible.
When it comes to helping you to balance caregiving for your elderly parent and maintaining your marriage, this care provider can allow you to take more time to yourself to dedicate to your bonding with your partner and reduce your stress so that you are less likely to experience negative emotional reactions that can strain your relationship.
If you or an aging loved one are considering Caregiver Services in Drexel Hill PA, please contact the caring staff at True Direct Home Health Care today.
Doc, as he is called by everyone - staff, patients and clients - first experienced home health care and hospice care while as a colleg student at King's College as he cared for his mother every day while she first battled COPD and then lung cancer. It was during this time that he came to understand that caring for a patient was more than just clinical expertise.
"Admittedly, my strongest attribute is my communication skills and the simple fact that I love to help people. Even the smallest thing you can do for someone really can mean so much to them long term. In fact, it could change them forever. That's what providing quality personal home health care should be all about."
In his spare time, he cooks for homeless shelters and children's music and arts events. He also is highly involved in his local youth sports soccer academy as a coach and Board member.
- How Home Health Providers Offer Education Amidst Physical Health Changes - March 5, 2024
- Spring Activities for Seniors - February 21, 2024
- How to Help an Older Loved One with Cataracts? - February 6, 2024