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golden: Get some rest and a hot bath.💕
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Hope this one works better, glad.

update - R got a temporary licence and they wouldn't accept that either as it doesn't have a photo on it. -so back to square one as it will take a month for him to get the replacement in the mail. A friend is lending him an older van, it is being serviced and I hope is road worthy. He will head north when it is ready. I'm not holding my breath.

My lawn lad will keep in touch. I said I would be interested in hearing how his last year at U of C goes. Then he wants to go on to a masters. In less than 2 years his family will move near to Stony. His dad told me they want to buy a small acreage there for retirement. Nice.

I wrestled with my printer/scanner downloading updates, restarting the router etc. for a while this morning and finally got it to scan. Some places will accept a photo, which is handy, but not all. I need another hot bath and a large mug of tea!!! ☕
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Frustrating, golden! Hope.that works out ok.

I have listed my house with another agent. Hope this one does something!

But, I am not encouraged, went to the website advertised on the sign, and it doesn't work. Agent says it is being updated.😧😧
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Another obstacle. Goodness!!!

R found a suitable vehicle to rent. The place I found that you could book one online at a good price, denied any knowledge of that when he went in person. But he went off today to E'ton with his tools (for doing repairs) to rent the one he booked by phone last night, and when he got there they wouldn't accept his driver's license which is on his smart phone. He says he hasn't used the hard copy for at least a year and off hand doesn't know where it is, with moving his stuff from the farm. The police accept the license on his phone!

I suggested he get to a registration office and get a hard copy rather than driving back out into the country and trying to find his old one. That was 4 hours ago and I haven't heard any more. I hope no news is good news.

My lovely lad who has been taking care of the lawn and garden says this is his last day. I will miss him. What a blessing he and his family have been to me. The clover on the front lawn is disappearing!!! He's doing a few extra jobs today to tidy things up. If he ever needs a reference I would be very happy to give him one.
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Ali,
I thought Jordan Peterson is a psychologist.
Disclaimer:
Had no intention whatsoever to discuss politics.
Never meant to set you off Ali.

Maybe stay away from fb until you pass your finals.
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"we do not voice our political, etc., views on AC" 🤣🤣🤣🤣
You must mean we're not supposed to😏🙄
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*Apologies if my last comment was abrupt. It was interesting to see him mentioned here because I've been listening to and writing stuff related to JP for the past few days when not consumed in finals. I'm in several Facebook groups for this. I'm not sure it was an appropriate comment since we do not voice our political, etc., views on AC.

I know his self-help has reached many people, and I'm all for that. 💙
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Send, I'm very familiar with Jordan Peterson, and I've read some of his books and watched many of his lectures and appearances on talk shows over the past five years.

I hate him. lol That's for many reasons, and all based on his terrible social theories. One example: He says females are the chaos in the world while males are the order, women cause men to suffer, and society should control women's sexuality and reproductivity. He argues that this is based on natural laws. He promotes sexism/misogyny as completely normal and natural.

I was just curious why you brought him up. I know his self-help stuff is popular. And I know my opinion and experiences aren't the only ones in the world. 💚

Funny, though, because I'm watching this video about JP right now in short segments as I break from finals work. It's a good debunking over three hours. https://youtu.be/hSNWkRw53Jo
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HHF,
Would it help to offer more hours, or a raise to your parent's helper?
I know the good ones are few and far between. Some will be leaving for school, but even then, maybe hiring the worker back for an occasional after classes may work?

Have you ever heard of Jordan Peterson?
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Maybe God's blessings "are" directed at you and not your parents HHF - I'm sure He knows you need them (and so does anybody else with aging parents)😏
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When I happen to mention that I have 94 year old parents, it seems the standard response is God Bless. I guess it is a cultural thing that Italians say when there is nothing else to say. I’m wired so tightly lately that anything pisses me off. I told the last person who said it that if anything God’s blessings should be on their caregivers. Petty and stupid but here you are.
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Here in mine.
My father does not want to eat. I prepare very high calorie meals and he eats one or two bites. Gaining weight just cooking them.
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Fireworks?! Really?!
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Oh there are so many. My big one today is that our part time helper gave notice yesterday. She was great and my parents looked forward to her coming everyday. I’m at square one again and dreading having to start looking for a replacement.
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golden23, I am also a "landmark" type of driver. But over the years so many of those landmark's have disappeared due to new development. Tear down something and I am lost if nothing else is at the highway intersection. Guess I should learn the street names ;P


And I would give directions using those landmark's as they are easier to see than street signs.


Dad taught me to read a map at an early age so I feel more comfortable with my trusty map-book then relying on GPS. One time we were visiting my grandparents out in the mid-west. Grandpa had me drive. His directions were "turn North" "now turn East", to which I asked him to use "left" or "right" as I wasn't familiar with compass directions.
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I have certainly been there too!
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And you probably won't get one Lu and that's okay. You don't need it.

Even if my sibs were to say something now it would be too little, too late for me. I feel so much better about myself now that I don't care. I carry myself a little taller now around them and it's humorous to me how much they still try to make me feel small. Sad for them that they need a scapegoat to feel powerful.
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I can relate to both Stillhurting and Gershun about getting no thank you's.
I did everything that my Mother wanted or needed for 9 and a half years while neither one of my brother's did anything to help Mother or I.
A thank you would have meant alot to me but it's been 6 years since Mother left and I still haven't heard one.
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Stillhurting I can relate to your story in some ways.

I looked out for my mom for many, many years. Long before she started getting old and frail. My siblings never really gave me much credit. I have always been considered weak in their eyes. So, I guess it made them feel superior and therefore to have to admit that I'd done something that they wouldn't or couldn't be bothered to do would be too much for them.

It's frustrating to be around people who prefer to see this vision of you that once was instead of recognizing that you are stronger than they like to think of you. I go through my days feeling strong and capable and respected and then when I communicate with my siblings at all suddenly I'm thrown back into that role that they designated for me.

I handle it by avoiding them. It would be nice to have a relationship with them but it's not worth it for me when they try to keep me down. I could find a cure for cancer and they'd still find a way to diminish it some how.

Feel good about yourself. You know what you did. God knows what you did. Screw your siblings! They don't deserve to have a relationship with you and you don't need their respect or admiration. Give it to yourself!
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I took care of my Dad and then my Mom, not only for their elderly years to death, but for mom, it was emotionally stressful as she had a mental illness that no one talked about. I have 6 siblings and NONE of them would help me. When My Mom died, she named my sister as executor, who was/is a manipulator and has a personality like Moms who would smile on one side of her face and hurt you on the other side of her face. I never argued about any of the executor stuff and or what I got.....but it sure has hurt me. The most thing that hurt me was that NO ONE in my family acknowledged how tired and how hard it was for me to work 2 jobs, then get in my car and drive 50 miles to help my mom and dad. It was a slap in the face when my sister gave my brother dads car. It has now been 9 years since Mom passed and I am getting a little better from being exhausted mentally and physically, but the hurt seems to remain in my heart that non one acknowledged all that I did. My mom and dad really never did appreciated all that I did. But then again, they would half way say thank you during their last days. I sure wish my parents were here again, so I could talk to them about my hurt. My sister will talk to me but she twists words around and acts like she did all the work for them all through her life. She tells all her friends the same. I'm getting better, but cant believe it took 5 years for me to feel rested from the hard work and still mentally feel beaten up about my siblings treatments.
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Glad, the homes for sale in my area (Lake Minnetonka, MN) are no longer "flying off the shelves" where homes were selling within *hours* of being listed and with bidding wars... in fact, sellers here are now dropping their prices after only 2 weeks on the market. The lending rate was so low and inventory also so low, that anyone who was thinking of buying already did (one of my sons included). House prices were inflated. Now the lending rates have increased and will keep increasing, but in the US we are having a recession for sure, with lots of economic uncertainty. I wish you a speedy sale!
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My whine? My house is still on the market. Realtor's contract expires Sunday. Yesterday, I received a text requesting a showing this morning. Then another text a couple of hours later, canceling because the buyer has Covid. Evidently they will reschedule. But, darn I want this done!

Anyone want to live near where HGTV is filming the next season of Hometown Takeover? Maybe that will help get this house sold. they will be here for four months. My Saturday morning coffee shop is closed for awhile for a complete remodel. It needed it, it was kind of a dump, but the coffee and company are great!
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Ahhh, Golden. It will all be done soon, then life will become easier. No, I didn't say normal I really think there is no such thing.
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This is almost a laugh between my low thyroid brain fog (coming out of it thankfully), dd's chemo brain fog, sil's ADHD and R's eccentricities. I don't think I can write it all out but I have offers of help that get forgotten (genuinely as they have helped before) Dd has been the admin person in their household and now with her chemo brain fog things tend to fall apart and she is very forgetful these days. "Did I say that?" "Yeah, you did."

R drives by landmarks not addresses so when I found a place to rent a truck he couldn't find it (even though he drives around that town regularly) as I don't know the landmarks around it. I mentioned the address and he said "I don't drive like that" It's true. We got lost once in the city because "There used to be a hotel on that corner". But, it works well in the country, "Turn east at the old oak tree then drive on till you see the barn with the red roof..."

It reminds me of once trying to find someone's house in Fort Chip. We stopped to ask directions to Cookie's house from a local who was walking down the road. Everyone in Fort Chip knew Cookie. The answer was "It's right beside old Antoine's place. You have to know where that is. He's been there all his life!" SMH -small towns!!! When you called a cab after grocery shopping there you just got in and said 'Take me home."

Just found out that sil has an infection in his stomach so dd should not be offering his help anyway. It's pouring rain which "puts a damper" on some activities. The good news is that sil is on antibiotics and we hope that will deal with his long lasting stomach issues. And I found a place to rent a truck that R has been to before and can find easily. He says I will see him soon, but R's "soon" is most peoples "quite a bit later". Sigh!!!

My brain fog is clearing so I can start on the house again. DD and I were commiserating the other day about low energy and how we take for granted things like being able to clean the kitchen without getting exhausted, if you even get that far. Her radiation starts next Tuesday so they will travel down on Sunday and she will be there for the rest of the month. I will take gdg out for a couple of meals as sil will travel south to be with dd on his days off.

Why would I even dare to think that life could go anywhere near smoothly? It doesn't usually.
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Just a general "whine" about the mental health issues surrounding caregiving and a request for people on this site to show a little compassion instead of judgment. I think we all get enough of the latter already.

I just read an article from the American Psychological Association about the mental health challenges of caregivers. That's on top of the physical health issues incurred as a result of putting your needs second chronically.
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/11/numbers-stress-caregivers


I've also read opinions on this very forum that are indicative of the kind of attitudes that contribute to the depression and hopelessness a gigantic amount of caregivers face. You've read the comments. I think some people just come out here to scold caregivers. I've read some truly nasty and argumentative comments out here. That's just sad.

The challenges faced by caregivers aren't manufactured and there is no "just do this" kind of fix. It is a slog every day in quicksand. Most fixes require energy and if you are like me, there isn't a whole lot in reserve.

So for all of us who are just doing the best we can every day, kudos to us. It's one of the hardest jobs in the world and one of the least appreciated. I salute every single one of us for our efforts and hope that every day there is at least a moment or two of peace or joy or just calm thoughts.
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NDDIL1 I am so sorry. was MIL living with you before this weekend? Your SIL has some nerve, but if she was living with you maybe SIL thought you were OK with it? I think it is time for your hubs to get over his anger with you and help you with a long term plan,, I know this is easier said than done. And maybe ask SIL what her thoughts are for the future. and don;t let it be YOU ! Who is paying for her expenses?
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We tried to send my MIL back to live with my FIL for the weekend. It didn't go well for them. They are not getting along. My SIL brought my MIL back to our house with a boxful of clothes, set up her electric toothbrush in our bathroom, hung her clothes in the closet, etc. I guess they are moving her in. No one asked.

I'm sitting here in tears because I feel so helpless. I'm angry, and I'm resentful, and I do not want this to be long-term. I don't know what to do. My husband just goes with the flow and gets angry at me when I ask questions, because no one has a plan and no one knows what to do.
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My kitty is a year old and is scared of air conditioners and fans so she sleeps under my blanket with her head on my pillow. Last night, she caught a mouse and dropped it on me in bed. I awoke to the mouse, it scared me to death. I have felt so dirty today and am scared to sleep.
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Gershun: You're welcome and glad that your stomach is better.
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