What Do You Do When Your Siblings Are Reluctant to Help Out?
Your parents need help. You’ve been going over as often as you can to help with laundry, meal preparation, and cleaning. You’re also sticking around long enough to provide the socialization they’re lacking.
Home Care Services in Fairfax County VA: Sibling Assistance
It’s becoming overwhelming trying to balance your work, responsibilities in your own home, and your own need to socialize. What do you do when your siblings don’t seem interested in helping out?
Hold a Family Meeting
Hold a family meeting and discuss the need for help. Make it clear that you’re happy to help your parents, but you also need time for your children, friends, and partner/spouse. Be ready to discuss the things you do all week for your parents, your employer, and yourself.
Come up with a schedule of the tasks you complete each week. Ask your siblings to look over the list and see if they could take over any of them. If they have a clearer idea of what needs doing and how long it takes, they may be more willing to help out.
Don’t expect everyone to chip in for the exact same amount of time as you do. If you have a sibling who has to drive an hour to get to your parents’ house, that drive will take time. You can’t forget that your sibling is spending two hours commuting. If you live a mile away, you clearly won’t spend much time getting to their house.
Ask Someone to Mediate
Family tensions can cause conflict. If conflicts have happened, that may be why your siblings became reluctant to help out. A mediator can help push past the disagreements and come up with a way that everyone can help out.
Mediators could be a pastor at your parents’ church, a social worker who specializes in the elderly, or an aunt/uncle who can treat each sibling equally. You could also look for a professional mediator.
Arrange Outside Help
Make arrangements for elder care services. You shouldn’t have to handle all of your parents’ care needs on your own. Elder care aides offer companionship, but they can also help out with housework, laundry, transportation, and meal preparation.
One of the benefits of elder care is that services are easily changed as needs change. If your parents become ill and need help with personal care and grooming, that’s an option. You can also drop services they don’t need if your siblings do start helping out more.
If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring Home Health Care in Frederick County, VA, please contact the caring staff at LivinRite Home Care.
Call Us Today at (703) 634-9991.
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