The most important thing these days has become the art of balancing your professional and personal life. We all reach that phase in life where our personal lives, become as hectic as our professional ones and our responsibilities are at their peak. Apart from work, your kids are small and need your constant attention, your parents reach that age, when they are no longer their young agile selves, and they need your support as much as your children. Balancing the role of a parent and a child can be tiring, taxing and extremely demanding. And in the process of taking care of everyone else, we generally tend to overlook our own needs. It is important to not burn ourselves out while taking care of the elderly and the young ones.
ThinkRight Tips to manage children and ageing parents:
- Involve everyone as much as you can:
When juggling tasks for several family members, it is essential to ensure that everyone participates as much as possible. For example, get your kids, to do their own chores, like tidying up after playing, trying to eat on their own etc. this will ease up a bit of your work, leaving you free to take care of the elderly.
- Have a support system:
It is practically impossible for you to do everything and not feel the stress. Hence, you must ensure you have a steady support system in place, one you can entirely trust. This maybe a nanny, or friends or neighbours, you can keep a watch over your parents. Sometimes, all you need is a friend to have a cup of coffee with, someone who can lessen that stress. You may also keep someone to help you with the house work, while you take care of everything else.
- Ensure parents’ safety:
As parents get older, they need someone to keep an eye on them constantly. One of your biggest worries as a child, is what if something happens to them, while you are not around. This is where your support system is helpful.
- Talk to everyone about everything:
The best way to take care of any stress is to communicate. Asking people how they are feeling and how their day has been, along with sharing your own, take off a great deal of stress.
- Set clear boundaries:
While you are running around taking care of everyone and everything around you, do not forget that even you need a time out. Most preferable from work. Learn to switch of your mobiles and recuperate. Sometimes, even an hour a day, spending time with just yourself is good enough to keep you afloat.
- Don’t let bad the days haunt you:
Last but not least, remember that life is like a wave. You’ll have both good days and bad days. They key to keep going is not to give too much importance to the bad days. You will lose your temper and at times snap at your parents of children. But that will never define you or your relationships. Be patient enough and keep on moving forward.
