Family dynamics that hamper caregiving success

Posted on October 17, 2011 Updated on March 30, 2018

A team is only as good as its members.  If the playbook isn’t carefully followed, success is unattainable.

The scenario for this article centers around care for Mom.  It doesn’t matter if Mom is still living at home and cared for primarily by one of her adult children OR Mom is living in a care facility receiving care for her day-to-day needs outside of the home.  Either way, the brothers and sisters of this caregiving team are in for the challenge of their lives.  What follows is a simple, yet complex, listing of destructive traits that could get in the way of the family’s caregiving goal.  All definitions are directly from the Oxford English Dictionary, 11th Edition, 2004.

• EGO. n. a person’s sense of self-esteem or self-importance.  Brothers and sisters, please check your egos at the door.  The exercise of one’s ego is so self-involved that the input of others, most likely controlled by their own egos, clashes with an individual’s perspective.  Acknowledge that egos are front and center, but either check them at the door, or put them high up on a bookshelf to be retrieved at a more appropriate time, and work together for the common good, not one’s own good.
• SELFISH(NESS). adj. concerned chiefly with one’s own personal profit or pleasure at the expense of consideration for others.  I’m seeing a trend here.  Ego and selfishness go hand-in-hand and truly have no place in a team dynamic.
• COMPETITION. n. the activity or condition of competing against others.  A successful sports team does not compete against its own members – it saves that for its opponents.  Your brothers and sisters are your allies, not your opponents, so you will all benefit from considering each other as such.  You want the same thing – the best care experience for your mother – so your common goal will be more effectively reached when all of you play on and for the same team.
• SENIOR(ITY). n. a person who is a specified number of years older than someone else.  Just because you’re older than your sister doesn’t mean your input is more valuable than hers.  Your younger siblings are just that – they’re younger, not stupid.  I know that sounds harsh but I’ve seen this time and again where siblings maintain the same perspective of their childhood sibling relationships and it becomes a barrier towards moving forward as adults.  Once you reach a certain adult age, those differences no longer exist.  It’s hard to break away from the age hierarchy paradigm, but break away you must.
• SHARED RESPONSIBILITY.  You’ll rarely find a family that carries the caregiving burden equally.  Some members will do more than others, either by virtue of their proximity to Mom, and/or due to their abilities.  But a greater percentage of tasks does not necessarily equate to a greater percentage of input regarding Mom’s caregiving.  Arguably one could say, “You don’t care enough to help out so we don’t care about what you have to say.”  One could say that but doing so is counterproductive.

I list the above traits because they can be very destructive when complex issues of aging and caregiving come into play.  Imagine trying to come to a consensus of opinion regarding an appropriate level of care for Mom at any given time, or managing the financial dilemmas often inherent with the caregiving process; or the emotion-packed subject of end-of-life issues.  Respect for each others’ opinions will go a long way towards paving the road with fewer speed bumps.

A caveat:  I acknowledge that some family histories are far more complicated, and more dysfunctional, than others.  Because of the unhealthy years that many children have experienced growing up, far more is on the table when working with one’s siblings.  In those circumstances, a third-party unbiased counselor can be a valuable addition to the care team.

My question to you wonderful caregivers out there who have wrestled with this caregiving team challenge: how did you iron out the difficulties, or did you?

If you do not have any family members, please look at my article Solo Caregiving.