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https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/caregiver-creep-helping-elderly-relatives-160030637.html

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Good article and true. This can happen to friends and neighbors too. You start out maybe taking the person shopping, then rides to the doctor, picking up perscriptions because they have no children near by. We started helping my GFs Mom with a ride to a doctor out of State maybe once every other month. GF was wheelchair bound from an amputation. Husband had to work because of her medical bills. DH ended up driving her soecial van to her doctors. Then her daughter who had Thyroid cancer, special needs so didn't drive. In one month we were taking someone 3x a week to doctors. How did I get out of it, my daughter had a baby and asked me to watch him till her was 2. I did and then just about the time he was ready for Daycare, I had to take my Mom in. GFs Mom had started asking me to do little things for her so I know where that was going. She found a friend to help her.
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I read it, and it resonates. It's a clever article in that it gives us a new term for becoming consumed with caregiving. "Caregiver creep" is catchy and cute. The term may be around for a while.

However, the article dredges up the same old same old; "caregivers need to take care of themselves," and "join a caregivers' group," etc. etc. ad nauseam. Nothing new in all that. Just tell me how to accomplish that when my loved one needs to be the focus of almost everything I do. No family help. No one to take me to my own doctor appointments, so I have to hire people if I can't drive home afterward. And so on. Though LO is now in memory care, the beat goes on. He's sick. There is always something I MUST do.

Plus I'm not enamored of caregiving groups because I don't want to hear more sad stories. It does usually boil down to that. I'm tired of being told that I need to join a group. No, I don't. Attending and consoling are just more unwanted responsibilities.

Anyhow, no matter how many articles we read, nothing changes. Creep on, caregiving! LOL (I guess).
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