As we enter the new year, many of us reflect over the things we accomplished and prevailed against the year before. Parents caring for medically fragile children may not have the time to focus on their own resolutions and needs, so we compiled a list of eight possible New Year’s resolutions to help you and your family level up in 2025.
- Prioritize your mental health. Caring for a medically fragile child is a serious responsibility and sometimes a parent may not have time to take care of themselves.
You’ve likely heard of the adage “Don’t pour from an empty cup.” This means you must care for yourself and make sure your mental health is in tip top shape, or you will be unable to properly care for your child.
Luckily, according to Standford Medicine, “mothers of chronically ill children tend to make greater use of health care services — particularly psychotherapy — to help them cope with the daily challenges of caregiving.”
This is your reminder to put your mental health and wellness at the top of your priorities and take advantage of the opportunities in front of you.
- Make time for self-care. Neglecting ourselves and our needs can drastically affect our mood. Losing sleep makes us tired and cranky. Not eating a balanced diet can lead to obesity and fatigue. And not enjoying simple pleasures or hobbies can leave us feeling empty.
The Mayo Clinic Press says “time away from your child will help replenish your energy and spirit, helping you to be a better parent.”
Caregivers of medically fragile children can promote balance in their lives and relieve stress by using respite care. Respite care is a service designed to give family caregivers a period of rest from the daily responsibility of caring for their loved ones, allowing them to recharge while knowing that their child is being taken care of. The respite period can vary depending on a family’s needs and benefits but often range from a few hours to a few days or weeks. To learn more about receiving respite care for your child, read our blog here: Respite Care for your Child | Maxim Healthcare Services.
It is important that you make time for yourself while also caring for your medically fragile child. This includes life’s necessities as well as your simple pleasures and hobbies. Whether it’s watching an episode of your favorite show, reading a chapter from your favorite book or driving to get your favorite drink at Starbucks. It is important to care for yourself with the same vigor as you do for your child so you can show up for them.
- Practice Gratitude. With the constant hustle and bustle of attending doctor’s appointments and ensuring their children’s daily needs are met, many caregivers find it hard to stop for a second and smell the roses. Some days will be better than others, but that gives you even more reason to celebrate both the big and small wins.
According to the National Institutes of Health, “Taking the time to feel gratitude may improve your emotional well-being by helping you cope with stress.”
Stop for a moment and pull out a journal and write down a list of all the things you are grateful for. Journaling can help keep yourself grounded and can be a resource to refer to during difficult times.
- Focus on Quality Time. According to the National Library of Medicine, time spent with parents is a crucial factor in the children’s growth, and children’s well-being is an important indicator of their mental health.
Find ways to create joyful memories despite medical routines; this could be reading stories together, doing crafts, building an indoor fort, grabbing your child’s favorite fast food after leaving an appointment or playing games tailored to your child’s abilities. The memories you create with your child can improve their mood and help them get through challenging times.
- Be present. Sure, it is easy for you to get bogged down in the details or go down a rabbit hole thinking about the past or what will happen in the future. But stop and a re-center yourself. Focus on the here and now to give yourself peace of mind.
In an article, The importance of staying present, writer Jake Glover states, “We are not on this Earth for long, being constantly absent will allow our time to run away from us without ever truly existing.”
Being absent will pull you away from the child in front of you who needs your care and attention. Tomorrow’s problem will be just that — tomorrow’s problem. So why not focus on what you can accomplish today?
- Advocate Effectively. Learn how to better advocate for your child’s healthcare needs. Strengthen your understanding of medical systems, your child’s rights and how to communicate effectively with healthcare providers. Also, remind yourself that things may not happen overnight or as quickly as you want them to.
You must think outside the box to get your child the best treatment possible. This can include building yourself a network of people you can trust comprised of medical professionals and parents on a similar journey. Your network can be either online or in-person.
- Spread the love. The presence of a medically fragile child in a household affects everyone — not just that child and his or her parents. If your medically fragile child has a sibling, show them some extra love. It is challenging to grow up as the sibling to a medically complex child and studies show that the experience can cause emotional and mental trauma (Psychology Today). The experience is referred to as “survivor siblings.”
“Survivor siblings refer to the experience of those siblings who grow up alongside the presence of a sibling with a chronic, life-limiting, severe disability, often accompanied by medical complications…what they witness and encounter while growing up alters the course of their intrapsychic and interpersonal development” (Psychology Today).
Check in with the sibling, give them one-on-one time and create pleasurable memories and experiences. Psychology Today also recommends the following tips to help your child navigate the experience.
- Be aware of how you outwardly express your emotions. Your child receives cues on how to feel and behave based on how you act.
- Give the child permission to express themselves without judgement.
- Valiate your child’s feelings and experiences.
- Witness your child’s experience of witnessing.
- Emphasize inclusion. In his Ted Talk, Jack Viorel says inclusion helps build compassion within youth. By teaching your child about inclusion, you teach them the importance of having compassion for others and celebrating differences among different kinds of people.
When we focus on inclusion, “we can create a foundation of understanding, empathy, and acceptance that will stay with our children throughout their lives. In doing so, we contribute to building a future generation that embraces diversity, values inclusivity, and fosters a world where everyone feels like they belong” (Medium).
By using the tips we listed in this blog, you can make 2025 a peaceful and balanced year for you and your family. Additionally, using respite care can give you time to recharge and focus on your own needs while our team of passionate nurses care for your child. To learn more about our respite care services, reach out to your local office.
