With me, it's the TV. My mom is so sick and weak with kidney disease that TV is pretty much her only source of entertainment. That wouldn't be quite so bad if she still understood how to work the remote, but dementia has erased that ability. If she isn't able to watch TV, she usually just goes back to bed...then ends up in a state of delirium from depression and too much sleep. So now I am the one in charge of her entire world of entertainment.
Before I started staying with mom, I was used to a different life, where I mostly listened to music or enjoyed silence. I'm not really a TV person. When I did watch stuff, I'd be that person who binged a season of whatever on my days off, or watched movies with friends, and then didn't watch anything for days at a time. Now I have to babysit the TV every day, every time my mom is out of bed.
If there's a timer system on mom's TV or service provider that lets you schedule channel changes, I haven't found it yet. Plus there are a billion channels but not a lot of stuff mom can watch. I'm really grateful for streaming services. Being able to work the On Demand is my new superpower. I upped mom's bandwidth to unlimited just to accommodate her watching. I now keep a notebook with a list of what's on which channel, and how long it is, so that I can plan how long I can be away from the remote. I've even taught mom about binge-watching (for selfish reasons - so I can put on Netflix and know it will go straight to the next episode without me). I'm thinking about getting a wireless HDMI setup so I can try running stuff from my laptop (preferably in another room!).
What about you? Is there something you now have to be in charge of that you never expected would be part of your daily life when you took this on?
@Rie144 - I miss the quiet too! Desperately! Sometimes too much noise makes me jumpy. But I did just get mom to binge both seasons of Stranger Things with me, so I should remember to be grateful she is open to newer stuff. :-)
The stuff fit perfectly but of course mom complained. They just weren’t quite like her stuff from 1957.
Huge cat. He didn’t like me much even before my promotion.
Enough said.
www.agingcare.com/discussions/you-know-you-are-caregiver-if-163390.htm
All I knew about caregiving, or had read about as possibilities I never expected babysitting the television to be on the list! :-)
The first time I trimmed mom's toenails -helped her shower-wiped her bum-cut her hair-.............
The frustration of navigating the healthcare system and home care, talking to "experts" who should know better than you do but seemingly don't.
The days you realize she doesn't really remember who you are, or who she is either.
BUT, hopefully you find some positives in your caregiving experiences too.