Last year, I traveled to conferences and for in-person training. As I stood in line at TSA and walked through the airport, I saw family caregivers. One helped his parents navigate a very confusing check-in experience at security. Another pushed a parent in a wheelchair while another slowly walked next to her.
In both cases, I wondered: Would it be helpful to offer help? To simply say “Thank you” to the family caregiver?
Instead, I said a silent prayer for smooth travels.
I remembered the challenge of taking my parents on road trips. I couldn’t imagine traveling on airplanes with them.
A few weeks ago, I shared about affiliate stigma which led to one of our readers (Thank you, BayPoodle!) asking this question:
Makes it clear how important it is to figure out ways to be supportive of other caregivers in public places. How can we do that? I’d like to hear from other caregivers how I can be there for them. Like, just have a kind face? Share some of my own story? Stay out of it because it’s not my beeswax?
I’d love to hear what you’d like from us when we see you out in the world.
Feel free to take our survey and share your thoughts in our comments section, below. We’ll share our survey results with you and use the survey results for an educational campaign.
Thanks so much for all you do!
Resources
- Join us October 10 for our next Caregiving Listener Project. Release the weight of a story you carry by connecting with a trained Volunteer Listening Artist in a private Zoom room.
- We meet on Tuesday (9/16) at 1 p.m. ET to create plans for your recovery from a long caregiving day or crisis and on Thursday at (9/18) for a Soul Break from our regrets. Register to join us.
