I printed out 2 articles. One on Caregiver Burnout and one on Caregiver Depression.
Should I give these to my mother ? She's a very negative, critical person and has no idea how much I have given up to care for her, yet all she does is complain.
i don't want to hurt her feelings or make her think it's her fault, but i think she should know how this affects me. Of course, there's always the chance that she will twist it all around to make me feel even worse !!
You say " I don't want to hurt her feelings or make her think it's her fault, but i think she should know how this affects me." I do agree - absolutely - and while it may not be her "fault" she does bear some responsibility in the situation. Your feelings are as important as hers. Self centered, negative people usually have no idea how they affect others and I think only you can tell her that. Those of us who were brought up by a negative critical parent have been "trained" to put the needs/feelings of others before our own. Breaking out of that is hard but can be done and really needs to be done for our emotional health and even our physical and.spiritual health. There is excellent support here. Wishing you all the success possible in your situation, You are worth it!
I agree that the articles probably won't go over as you'd like. Moms like these never think they apply to them because it's always someone else's fault. But you know your mom better than we do and if you think it'll help, go for it.
I wish you the best. Taking care of a negative parent is a challenge.
However please have at least one day a week for yourself. Get someone else to watch Mom and take the day to do whatever makes you happy. You need to take care of yourself physically and mentally.
I use to try to get mom to go to the movies with me, before she got sick, and she use to say she couldn't sit for long periods of time. Our outings would be to go to the market. I use to laugh at her when she'd drive those motorized market scooters to shop because she'd run into everything (before she had the stroke). Now when I'm marketing and see a senior citizen on one I often wish my mom was still in the condition to drive one.
Got a little off the subject here, just thought I would plant that thought while it was there.
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