I appreciate the honesty of this article. Particularly the part where you shared: "My sister (13 years my senior, 54 to my 41) lives one hour away but hardly does a thing to help my mom. (This is changing very slowly.) So it all falls on me, just as it did with “our” father. My dad was not my half-sister’s biological father but he co-raised her starting around age 3. And yet she was almost totally absent the two years of his battle with cancer. Such is life. Clearly, I hold resentment around this." This is such an underlying thing for most people (and so few people actually talk about it). The responsibility of caregiving elderly parents is so undefined, unclear, and undiscussed that I think maybe it might be because as a society America is slightly fearful of aging? I grew up halfway around the world and caregiving is assumed to be a communal responsibility (and everybody just does it, chipping in however way they can). And 1-hour drive away is not enough of an excuse to not partake. So it's a bit odd now to see how in the US, it's all upside down.
I appreciate the honesty of this article. Particularly the part where you shared: "My sister (13 years my senior, 54 to my 41) lives one hour away but hardly does a thing to help my mom. (This is changing very slowly.) So it all falls on me, just as it did with “our” father. My dad was not my half-sister’s biological father but he co-raised her starting around age 3. And yet she was almost totally absent the two years of his battle with cancer. Such is life. Clearly, I hold resentment around this." This is such an underlying thing for most people (and so few people actually talk about it). The responsibility of caregiving elderly parents is so undefined, unclear, and undiscussed that I think maybe it might be because as a society America is slightly fearful of aging? I grew up halfway around the world and caregiving is assumed to be a communal responsibility (and everybody just does it, chipping in however way they can). And 1-hour drive away is not enough of an excuse to not partake. So it's a bit odd now to see how in the US, it's all upside down.
Congrats on the book!