Confidence in caregiving

“I did it!”

What a great feeling those words bring up…we often feel our own confidence bursting at the seams just at the success of anyone who realizes they have reached a level of self-assurance.

We want to feel that same confident feeling, in our caregiving life, too.

Most of us have a feel-good “I did it” moment we can recall.
Maybe…

… after practicing a piano piece, you finally got it right.
… after rehearsing a conversation before making a phone call, the words actually came out as you planned.
… when you promised yourself you’d pick up the kids at 3:30 after school, you actually were there and on time.
… you were at the bus stop before the bus arrived.
… you were able to get your loved one into the car to go to Seniors Day Program with a smile on his face.

What I noticed as I thought of the examples was that they all didn’t start out as confident moments. Each one had a learning curve, a trial and error experience period, while working toward the intention – ‘success that builds confidence’ takes time.

Finding caregiver “I did it” moments

You may already have found that caregivers for those with memory loss do not always have that great feeling of confidence. So when we do, we treasure it.

The best way to ‘go for it‘ is to aim for a goal where we do the best we can ‘at that moment’ each time we are called upon to do something for our loved one. We know each time we do a similar activity, the response may be different, so each time may be like learning from step 1 all over again. Eventually, caregivers learn to be happy when we get to the end of a day. But we still yearn to have that “I did it” feeling, that confidence that reflects doing something we set out to do, and did it, no matter how small a goal it might seem to anyone else.

CLICK HERE to Read the rest of this article

(This full article, regarding Becoming a Confident Caregiver will also be found on the drop down main menu under Caregiver Knowledge as a static page for easier finding. Blog pages just get more initial attention, so thus this format allows us to reach as many caregivers as might benefit. Thank you.)