You Are Not Alone
Caretakers of the elderly are increasingly their children and close relatives―just like you.
A 2020 AARP survey found there were nearly 42 million people providing care for an aging friend or family member. This was reported to be more than 10 times the number of people found to be doing so in 1989.
These numbers reflect not only the fact that people are living longer but also that they are doing so with more chronic diseases and disability than previous generations―and also with less financial means than previous generations.
At the same time, the costs of senior living institutions and in-home caregivers has skyrocketed, making these options beyond the financial reach of all but the wealthiest amongst us.
As a result, adult children are increasingly being forced to provide essential care for their aging parents, without being paid and often without physical or financial help from others.
Frustration Is Normal
Feelings of frustration, anger, and yes, even bitterness, are perfectly normal―don’t beat yourself up. Take a deep breath! The emotional toll that caregiving for one’s parents exacts on the caregiver is both pervasive and severe. Caring for a parent is all at once stressful, burdensome, painful, frustrating, maddening, and saddening. Moreover, as often is the case, if you find yourself being the primary caregiver despite the fact that you have siblings in close proximity, your feelings of being unduly burdened can reach new dimensions. Respect your feelings―allow yourself to feel about the situation the way you feel about it.
Parental Care Can Be Rewarding
When your energy is low, your temper short, and feelings of frustration start to percolate in you, try to replace the negative thoughts that are starting to form in your brain with more positive thinking. It can be important for you to remember that this is not the “end of life” scenario your parents wanted for themselves or for you.
Recognize that caring for your elderly parent is not all bad―there are significant benefits associated with such care. Besides the obvious financial benefits of saving costs, being a caregiver to your aging parent provides greater empathy and fosters a stronger bond between you. Deservedly so, you may feel a solemn pride at having been there for them in their time of greatest need.
The P-flector® Can Help
One of the most stressful situations you will experience while caring for your elderly parents is helping them to go to the bathroom. You will encounter not only the physical difficulties of maneuvering your parent into the proper seated position on the toilet, but other difficulties as well.
Incontinence is quite common in both elderly males and females.
In addition, elderly men can lose the ability to control their urine stream. Unless there is some sort of urinal splash guard in place, pee can be directed at the gap between the toilet seat and the toilet bowl and end up wetting dad’s pajamas or soaking the floor.
In the case of elderly women, they often pee with such force that pee and toilet bowl water are splashed over the underside of the toilet seat. Here, again, unless there is some toilet splatter guard in position to prevent this, mom’s clothes can become soiled or the floor wet.
As you can imagine, this inability to control a routine bodily function is embarrassing and can sap your parent of his or her dignity and self-esteem.
But there is help…
The P-flector®, available from For Kids By Parents, Inc. (www.forkidsbyparents.com), is a pee splash guard that can be mounted on the underside of the toilet seat. Properly positioned, the P-flector® functions as a urine deflector to block a urine stream or toilet bowl water splatter directed towards the gap between the toilet seat and the toilet bowl.
The P-flector® is durable and long-lasting, providing anti-splash urinal screen protection over the course of many uses. Because the P-flector® is inexpensive, a P-flector® that has been in use for a while is easily replaced by a new P-flector® whenever desired to maintain a hygienic bathroom condition.
If your aging parent’s house has multiple bathrooms that your parent utilizes, one or more P-flector® urine shields can be mounted on each of the toilets to provide a sanitary solution to urine splashing throughout the entire house.
The P-flector® is small and portable―the caretaker can carry an unused P-flector® when taking their parents to visit relatives and friends to provide bathroom splash guard protection on the road in the same manner as when at home.
The P-flector® pee splash guard goes a long way towards preventing peeing accidents that require significant cleanup of the parent’s person and the bathroom―not only when at home but also when traveling. The P-flector® can help you to maintain your parent’s dignity and self-esteem and save you some of the frustrations that typically arise at bathroom time.