Often, adult children and other family members fail to consider how caring for an aging parent or loved one can impact the dynamics of their family relationships until they are face to face with the situation. Siblings and close family members can live next door to one another, in the same city or across the country, but the challenge of providing care and what it will mean to them as family caregivers can be stressful. Even the strongest of relationships can become strained when roles change and people become more than sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters and take on the role of caregiver.

One of the hardest moments for an adult son or daughter is realizing an aging parent needs help with daily living. The signs are obvious: a once meticulous home becomes untidy, they wear the same clothes almost every day, new dents in their car, the refrigerator has little food inside, poor personal hygiene goes by the wayside. And sadly the list goes on.

When thinking of caregivers, you may picture a female around 20-30 years old, assisting an elderly person. While this isn’t an inaccurate assumption, it isn’t quite fair. Today, more and more people are taking on the role of ‘caregiver.’ Whether they are caregivers of family members or by professional employment, people of a different race, age and gender are contributing to this role of service. Caregivers are daughters, wives, husbands, sons, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, partners and friends.