The Sandwich Generation:
How to talk to your children about aging grandparents
In the sandwich generation your life continues to get complicated.
You have to deal with aging parents, but you also have to deal with your
children's issues and confusion about what's happening to their
grandparents.
How do you explain the facts of aging to your children? If your
parents are becoming more frail, or develop a disability, how will your
children make sense of all this?
Making Visits Fun
If you leave the kids for a visit with your parents, but your aging
parents no longer have the energy or staminia they once did, how do you
help make the situation work?
Consider these ideas for celebrating National Grandparents Day.
When Grandma moves in
Many families will transition to multi-generational households. What are the new rules and arrangements that will make this understandable for children? How can you ease their adjustment to all the changes in this sandwich generation home?
Understanding Dementia or other Mental Disease
For some, illness or disease will radically change your parents moods and behaviors. This can be very frightening for children if Grandpa no longer recognizes them or doesn't remember their name. There are some wonderful resources, including an HBO film that can help you learn to talk about alzheimer's symptoms with your kids. You'll need to be prepared to answer their questions in a way that gives them skills and resources to cope.
Reducing Holiday Stress
You still have that perfect holiday fantasy in your mind. Time to get over it before you drive yourself crazy. Try these new tips for coping with holiday stress.
Finding Caregiving Support
When you are stressed and overwhelmed with all you have to do, would you be surprised that the first sources of family caregiver support is YOU.
Dealing with Grandparent's Death
At some point your children will finally have to encounter your parent's
death. There are ways to set the stage so the transition is not so
scary.
In addition to everything else, you will also be responsible to help
them through their time of grief. Being prepared for the unevenness and
unpredictability of your children's grief will help both of you.
Books on Death and Grief for Children
You can turn to books and other resources to help you give your kids a safe space to process their own feelings and emotions of grief. Children's grief is very real, but they process their feelings very differently than adults.
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