On a daily basis you’re making choices that affect how your senior’s day will go, ranging from things like what she wears to what she eats. It’s possible that you need to be making some of these choices yourself. But are some of those decisions that you could let your senior make for herself?
Start to See Why Choices Are So Important for Your Senior
The choices that you make everyday can feel exhausting. There are visible and invisible choices you’re making constantly. As a caregiver, a lot of the decisions you’re making likely relate to your senior’s. From her perspective, no longer being able to make big or small changes can be frustrating. Even if your senior knows that you’re operating in her best interests, it’s still difficult to not have any ability to make decisions.
Small Choices Do Matter
Those small decisions that can bog down your day, like whether your senior has oatmeal or eggs for breakfast, could be ones that you really should leave to her. The choices that you give her don’t have to be the biggest or most complicated one on your plate at all. What you’re doing when you offer more options is opening up possibilities for her.
How You Offer Choices Makes a Difference
When the choices are too plentiful or too complicated, that’s almost worse than not offering choices at all. You’re aiming for a happy medium in which your elderly family member has enough leeway to feel in charge of what she can control while not feeling overwhelmed by those choices. That can be a fine line to walk, for both of you. What can help is to start out with smaller choices and only offer one option or another. Keeping things simplified helps you both.
Sometimes it Helps to See How Someone Else Offers Options
When you’re new to freeing up some of these decisions, it’s tough to see how this can really work in your favor. Working with senior care providers can help you to see how this is done effectively. Senior care providers can help you and your elderly family member to embrace these choices and see how they can make life easier for both of you.
Some of the choices your senior might make wouldn’t be the ones you would make for her. This is all part of letting go of a little bit of that control.
IF YOU OR AN AGING LOVED ONE IS CONSIDERING SENIOR CARE IN WILSON, NC, PLEASE CONTACT THE CARING STAFF AT SENIORS HELPING SENIORS TODAY. CALL (919) 761-5346.