What Can You Do When Other Family Members Just Don’t Understand?

What Can You Do When Other Family Members Just Don’t Understand?  

Other family members may stop in and visit your senior, which is a wonderful thing. What isn’t so wonderful can be how they might say one small thing that undoes all of the hard work that you’ve done to convince your senior to accept help or any number of other things. They do this because they don’t understand. 

Practice Patience 

More often than you think, other family members are going to do or say something that is contrary to what you and your senior have worked out as part of her care plan. Usually they don’t mean anything by this. These comments are usually some sort of toss away remark that has more weight than expected because of your senior’s situation. Practicing patience is important when this is going on. 

Educate Them, if Possible 

The first step in making some progress with this issue is to educate your family members, if that’s at all possible. If they don’t understand the weight of their statements, having more information can sometimes be helpful. Education can be the first step in helping these other family members to have a better understanding of what your senior is dealing with on a daily basis. 

Don’t Sugarcoat Things 

It might be tempting to dress things up a little bit or to sugarcoat them. This happens because hard truths are hard to share. The problem is that often that means you’re leaving out vital information that your other family members need in order to really support you and your aging family member. So it’s best to go with unvarnished truth, but not in an unkind way. 

Keep Doing What You Need to Do 

The ultimate goal for you is that you keep doing what you need to do for your senior, even if other family members are trying to “help” by tossing out unsolicited advice. Hiring senior care providers can help you to have the space and the assistance that you need to ensure that your senior is getting what she needs. Other family members go home, but you and your senior are still there in that same situation. 

It’s not always easy to make sure that other family members are all in the loop about everything. But you can do your best and help them to understand what still doesn’t make sense to them. In the end, if they’re interfering with your senior’s care, you may need to tell them exactly that.  

If you or an aging loved-one are considering Senior Care in Blythewood, SC, please talk to our caring staff. Call today (803) 223-6173.