Sometimes, children become their parents caregiver. It can become complicated when there are other siblings involved that could lead to resentment. Tense and emotional situations caregiving can cause tends to bring out old family issues or conflicts that have not yet been resolved.
Three key insights into how to caregive with a sibling:
- Uncertainty with the parent can cause conflict between siblings. It is an emotional time to watch your parent decline and everyone has different was to cope with this. Struggles with emotions and past conflicts can show up in arguments about who does more for the parent, who did what for the parent, who isn’t doing enough for the parent.
- As a family, carefully consider who is responsible for what. It’s easier for a child who lives closer to help out a little more, but soon they realize it has become a second full-time job with other siblings “not pulling their weight”. To make sure this situation doesn’t happen, it is important to hold family meetings to discuss tasks for each person.
- People have differing opinions and that is no different with siblings. Each sibling has a different idea for how their parent should be taken care of. The best ways to get on the same page is to give a sibling time to understand the situation about what is happening, keep everyone up to date about their parent’s condition, and keep in mind that the parent may tell each child a different thing about their health. Work together with all the information gathered to get the complete picture.
Information from DailyCaring.com