When I was caring for mom and as the stress increased, I kept hoping for the situation to get easier, less stressful and less hectic. It never did. What I experienced was a slowly escalating situation where mom's care required more of my attention and time. Before my journey began, I had a full time job and a small business on the side. As a result, I had very little time for anything else. The more attention mom required, the more I started leaving other tasks behind. I slowly downscaled my business until there was nothing left. As for work, I took a great deal of time off or adjusted my schedule so that i could make up the time during evening and weekends that I was devoting to mom during the day.
My point is that as mom's needs increased, I keep arriving at a "New Normal". I had to accept that this was my life now and there was no way of knowing how long my new normal would last. So I had to accept my new normal and adjust my life accordingly. We all have goals, dreams and aspirations. Each adjustment in my life was a difficult decision to make since I was leaving behind all of my dreams and aspirations; especially with the business.
But, mom came first. There was no one else to take over the caregiving responsiblity. And so, I adjusted.
