I visited the website of an organization that serves family caregivers last week. It’s a long-running organization that commits to helping and supporting family caregivers.
But a large headline defines its support this way:
Helping you take care of yourself, so you can take better care of your loved one.
I’ve seen variations of this statement for decades. Each time I see it, I just sigh and groan. Why do we need to attach a string to our self care? Why do we need to hear that our self care seems to be only about our caree’s well-being?
Our self care matters because we are fully-dimensional individuals who deserve a full life. Certainly, we want to show up in our caregiving role as our best self so we don’t later regret impatient words or unkind responses and so we can effectively manage responsibilities that demand so much of us.
AND we want to show up in our life as our best self so we continue as our best selves in our other roles, whether that be colleague, partner, parent, friend, sibling, community member.
AND we want to show up in our future as our best self so we can enjoy what our future brings.
We take care of ourselves because our quality of life matters a great deal. We are more than a person who is in service of another. (Read In Service Of and Assessing the Family Caregiver Assessments.)
I’m curious: How do we talk about our self care differently?
Resources
- Join us in November for National Family Caregivers Month. Save on our training programs and receive our support through our events and initiatives.
