My Mini Meltdown
Lynette Whiteman
My Mini Meltdown
Lynette Whiteman

So, I rallied, and on schedule, made dinner for my mom. Because of her illness, she has no insight/interest into what I might be feeling or even the fact that every time she asked me to get something for her, I was limping around in pain. Maybe this is a terrible analogy, but it did bring back so many memories of when my kids were small and I had to care for them despite being sick myself.
During dinner, my mom kept sneaking food to my dog under the table when she thought I wasn't looking. When I caught her, she made a little sly smile. I know it doesn't sound like much and I might sound like a crazy-person here, but this is like nails on a blackboard to me. I just burst out crying because I knew I had no control of yet another situation and I couldn't express my frustration because this is her illness in full force.
Eventually I rallied and watched Jeopardy as usual, and I guess I can say I'm proud of myself because I didn't take out any of my frustration on my mom.
"On The Frontlines of Caregiving" podcast this week had a wonderful guest - Virginia Sampson. Virginia and I talk about alleviating burnout in caregivers and how to show yourself self-compassion, even in times of "mini-meltdowns."
Virginia is going to be a speaker at our wonderful NCC18 Conference in November and you can find more information about her by following Virginia on Twitter, on Facebook and on her website: www.compassionmagic.com.
As Virginia told me "there is no perfect caregiver." Amen to that!
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