Overwhelmed, but not alone... totally

[vanessah402718]

This message is for others who feel overwhelmed and/or underappreciated.....Hi I am an older sibling of five kids and I moved in with my dad who is now 76 yrs.  He is very healthy, but during his work he suffered head trauma and had to undergo brain surgery.  He made it through very successful considering his age and is doing fine.  The two years after he retuned home from rehabilitation was a very trying and involved time, but I was not working and just handled it one day at a time (doctor's appts., setting up medicine, appts. with nurses...etc..)  I am a worker at heart so I handled the responsibility very well and at times did seem overwhelmed.  I had two other able-bodied siblings with one I live with, but did not get a whole lot of help.  So there was no resentment until someone tried to act like it was no big commitment, then I could get a little testy.  Because it does take away from your own individual life and activities.  So the selfishness of the other siblings was very annoying as if their extra-curricular activities were more important than mine.  However, I know that I did my part and I sleep very well at night knowing that I did my part to help in getting my dad back to health.  And yes, I do toot my own horn at times. And he is doing very well... Thanks to me!!!

[Epster]

@vanessah402718  And toot your own horn you should. 🙂

We're a number of years away from retirement and live a few states away from DH's 92 y-o father, who has the early stages of dementia. Dad's in a care facility, but two older siblings oversee the financial/business end of things and the day-to-day stuff. We are grateful for their sacrifices, but of course do not know the whole story due to the distance and the tendancy to just suck it up and do what needs done. 

We try to toot their horns early and often because we recognize that Dad's situation has been taking a lot out of the siblings' own lives (one is two years from retirement, the other has been retired for 5 years).

So yes, do the tooting so that the tooting gets done. 🙂