Trying to Do It All: Balancing Full-Time Work, a Health Condition and Caring for My Parents
There are days where I genuinely wonder how I’m still going.
Not in a dramatic way. Just in that quietly-exhausted, slightly-detached, autopilot mode kind of way.
Because right now, I’m working a full-time job, managing a long-term health condition and caring for two disabled parents who don’t financially qualify for the level of support they actually need.
It’s a lot.
And some days, it feels impossible.
Caregiving and Mental Health: The Hidden Panic No One Talks About
Some days, it feels like I’m calm on the surface… and quietly spiralling underneath.
I’ll be doing something completely normal - making a cup of coffee, replying to an email - and suddenly I realise I’m clenching my jaw, holding my breath, running through scenarios in my head that haven’t even happened yet.
What if Mum gets a pressure sore?
What if my stepdad has another heart attack or falls?
What if I miss something, forget something, drop one of the spinning plates and it all crashes down?
Caring comes with so much love.
But it also comes with so much fear.
“Just shove them in a home” - Why It’s Not That Simple
“Why don’t you just shove them in a home?”
It usually comes from people who mean well, or think they’re being practical. They see the stress etched on my face, they hear the stories about the ambulance callouts, hospital appointments, lifts and trying to work full time and they think the solution is easy:
Outsource it.
Hand the responsibility to someone else. Put my parents in a care home so I can go back to “having a life.”