Caregivers: Start Your Engines!

It was a hot, sweaty Tuesday morning in summer. Dad and I used the portable patient lift to put Mom into the passenger seat of the mini-van. We were running late—again! Stress was high. He started the engine, turned the air conditioning on to make us comfortable, and loaded the wheelchair and patient lift into the van.

Dad hopped into the driver’s seat, put his seatbelt on, threw the gear into reverse and backed out of the driveway—right into my little blue Honda Prelude that was parked across the street. I could have cried, but I’m laughing now. Nobody said a word. My poor Dad put his head in his hands, shook it off and drove to the doctor.

Wait! I have another story from a daughter (let’s call her Fran) who was taking care her mother, an Alzheimer’s patient. Talk about stress. Fran was running errands. She hopped in the car, grabbed the seatbelt, lights, put the gearshift in reverse. She backed the car right into the garage door! Oopsy! The second time—yes, the second time!—that she forgot to open the garage door, she admitted she might need a break.

Thank goodness nobody was hurt in either case. These are examples of caregivers who need a break. Caregiver Burn-Out is real and sometimes costly. You can’t afford not to put the brakes on.

If you’re a multi-tasker who must make the best use of your time, then consider some recreational ideas that will help you gas up and fill everyone’s tank. Here’s a favorite that I was able to share with my Dad after his encounter with my Honda Prelude.

Performance Driving School. Honestly, I thought this was going to be a day of quality time and togetherness for my Dad and me. As it turned out, we still had a blast, but we weren’t exactly together. I enrolled us in a class about an hour away from the house and we drove separate vehicles. Once we arrived, we were trained on a number of obstacle courses where we learned how to navigate our vehicle through skids, high speeds, hydroplaning, and hairpin turns.

Not only was this a total rush, we both learned so much about what a vehicle can and can’t do. The training reinforced our hand-eye coordination and generally gave us more confidence in our driving. Most importantly, my Dad had a recreational break that was completely contrary to the kind of relaxation he might otherwise schedule.

The point is to charge your batteries. Sometimes we have to look for experiences that are outrageous, outside of our traditional comfort zone. Putting ourselves in a situation that demands our full attention. Believe me, flying down a racetrack at 100 miles an hour and hitting the brakes required every brain cell I had. My attention—and my Dad’s—was diverted from the stress of caregiving long enough to give us the tune-up we all needed.

Now, start your computer’s search engine and look for “High Performance Driving School + ” and see what pops up!