THE CAREGIVER PLANS 4 THE DAY?

What are your plans for the day?

Do you have any plans for the weekend?

What are you up to?

OMG.  Yes, I have plans for the day!  But I have realized that regardless of what my plans for the day may be, they may not actually happen.

People say, “Man makes plans and God laughs…”  Well, I am truly happy that I am able to amuse God.

Because every night, I think about what I would like to accomplish the next day and every morning—very early on, those plans change dramatically.

It could be an over-flowing toilet, or a liquid spill or a phone call from a Senior Service Provider but every day something happens to set my day off course.

And so, some mornings, I decide to go “off course” on my own thus indicating a plan of some sort but that doesn’t work either.  I am destined to realize that my days are not my own.  I am a Caregiver and my days, my agenda for the day is dictated by the care needs of my Mom.

Therefore, in reality, no I don’t have any plans for the day.

My only plan is to make it through the day.  And that objective takes all of my thoughts and energy.  I would like to make it through the day with a limited amount of anger, resentment or hurt feelings.  I would like to make it through the day without running out of the building in tears.  I would like to make it through the day knowing that I had accomplished something productive in my life.

In an effort to change my attitude, I decided to view my Caregiver duties as projects.  Each completed project would then serve as an accomplishment to enter in to the “win” column.

That didn’t work.  Thinking about the duties as individual projects just made the list of activities more daunting and created a list of things that I wish I didn’t have to do.

I then thought that perhaps I would reward myself after each completed task.  Reward myself with a glass of wine, an uninterrupted phone call or maybe even ordering something for myself when I completed the Walgreens online order for Depends.

That didn’t work.  First of all, wine is not a reward but a necessity. And since I’m not a recently grounded teenager without phone privileges, an uninterrupted phone call is also not a top prize.  Walgreens is not the store I would choose to buy something fancy, pretty or nice for myself; therefore, adding my favorite lip gloss to the order just doesn’t do it for me.

Much like the people who consistently ask, “How’s your Mother?” there are a group of people who constantly inquire, “What are you up to today?”

I am busy taking care of my Mother in order to make sure that the answer to the first question is, “She’s fine; she is well taken care of.” 

I don’t have any plans for the day. 

“Thank you for asking.  But I really wish you hadn’t asked.”

The question just makes me realize even more that my life is not my own.  My days are not my own.  And most importantly…

I have no plans for the day!

Other than to amuse God by making plans.  LOL. Funny-not funny!

https://www.caregiversconscience.com/the-caregivers-comment/

“The Caregiver’s Comment”

https://www.canva.com/create/calendars/

GO AHEAD – MAKE A PLAN AND MARK THE CALENDAR ACCORDINGLY