Feel Like You Are a Parent Again?

Your children are grown, living away from home. Now you have time to enjoy yourself. There is time to enjoy life and the little things again. Maybe there is actually time to rejuvenate your relationship and romance with your spouse. Without warning, things change. You find yourself feeling like a parent again, while you start to do more for your parent. If you are serving as a caregiver, do you hear yourself speaking to your parent, as if you ARE the parent again? Do you have to remind your parent to get dressed? Are you constantly checking to make certain he or she is all right? Do you ask questions about health habits and what he or she ate today? Are you making suggestions for your parent? The roles are reversing. While you slip into the blessed "middle aged years" you feel overwhelmed again, just like you did as a parent...only this time, you feel like you are the parent to your parent!