Take a deep, slow breath. Calm down.
You want to read my email. You want to listen to my show on Saturday. But your loved one wants you to do something else. Again. Next comes the nagging. Those irritating little demands.
Now you feel guilty. You want to do something for yourself, but you think that you can’t.
Face it, Alex. You have to learn to say “NO.” And you have to be able to say it calmly but delicately.
Yes, we all know those times. As caregivers, we already struggle with enough stress. Do we really need to battle ourselves over feeling guilty because we want to do the right thing for ourselves once in a while?
My guest on Saturday will help us to say “no” to our loved one without those guilt feelings. She will guide us on the best ways to be prepared, and to say it so that our loved one will not be angry.
Joni Aldrich is a national speaker, and an author of several caregiver books. She also has her own radio show on iHeart Radio and the www.W4WN.com network. Joni is a cancer widow. As she cared for her husband, she wrestled with the changing behaviors of a loved one with a brain disease. She will share with us her first-hand experiences and lessons.
As caregivers, we tend to put the needs of our loved ones first. There is a limit to that. Just because someone needs a caregiver doesn’t mean that that person is his/her slave. Bad behavior in either the patient or the caregiver is not acceptable. The question is how do we respond. Joni will help us.
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