SandwichINK for the Sandwich Generation » Influenza

8 Ways Grandparents Can Help on Sick Days

Kaye Swain — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 21:11:23 +0000

“It’s not fair!” The pitiful lament from the sick little one as they sit by the toilet in the middle of a round of throwing up always tugs at my heart. I can’t disagree with them either. As I have always pointed out to my kids, and now to my grandkids, life is not fair! I also often remind them, that’s why we look forward to heaven! Because someday, when we are safe in heaven, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Revelation 21:4 (KJV). Now that’s something to look forward to!

In the meantime though, there are still those sick children and their exhausted and swamped parents. What can we grandparents do to help? A lot will depend on your health and circumstances, of course. I am blessed to be able to dive right in, help with holding, cuddling, and changing, and even rubbing backs while they are at the toilet. I don’t even catch everything any more. Granted, I catch more than I’d like, but it has gotten better. I always figure that so many other people have it as well, such as grocery store checkers, that I’d rather be part of helping. Others may not be able to be so up close and personal due to their own health issues. And still others live too far away to help much (that’s me too for half of my little grand-darlings.) Here are some suggestions for everyone:

Close by:

Make grocery store runs for the parents. This will save them time and energy and enable them to have more cuddle time with the sick child.
Tuck in a new game, book, or movie to tempt a sick one’s interests. Here’s a frugal tip for grandparents – Keep your eyes open throughout the year for great sales. After most major holidays, many games and toys are on sale for as much as 90% off! Keep a stockpile of these to pull from for these kinds of moments.
Offer to take some of the non-sick children out to your house or to a restaurant playland, to give mom/dad and the sick one a chance to rest peacefully for a few hours.
Offer to help with laundry. This can easily pile up during colds and flus. Just be careful to wash your hands a LOT to protect yourself from those nasty germs.

Far Away:

Call and see how everyone is doing. Offer to read a book on the phone to the sick child and/or a health child. This gives the parents a bit of a needed break.
If they live in a city where grocery delivery is available, see if they need to have groceries delivered and provide that for them.
Contact a restaurant that delivers and lets you pay over the phone with a credit card and send them a dinner or two. Be sure to ask first to make sure they feel well enough for the food you would be ordering.
Send get well cards with fun stickers or maybe even a CARE package with cute little stuffed animals, coloring books, and/or a game. (See #2 above.) If you prepare a box ahead of time and just pop it in the mail the minute you know they are sick, it will probably get there while they are still in the midst of it all.

It’s hard to know your loved ones are ill and makes you feel much better when you can take steps to help them. Just knowing you care and are trying to help will usually cheer up everyone in both households.

8 Ways Grandparents Can Help on Sick Days

Kaye Swain — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:43:24 +0000

Close by:

Make grocery store runs for the parents. This will save them time and energy and enable them to have more cuddle time with the sick child.
Tuck in a new game, book, or movie to tempt a sick one’s interests. Here’s a frugal tip for grandparents – Keep your eyes open throughout the year for great sales. After most major holidays, many games and toys are on sale for as much as 90% off! Keep a stockpile of these to pull from for these kinds of moments.
Offer to take some of the non-sick children out to your house or to a restaurant playland, to give mom/dad and the sick one a chance to rest peacefully for a few hours.
Offer to help with laundry. This can easily pile up during colds and flus. Just be careful to wash your hands a LOT to protect yourself from those nasty germs.

Far Away:

Call and see how everyone is doing. Offer to read a book on the phone to the sick child and/or a health child. This gives the parents a bit of a needed break.
If they live in a city where grocery delivery is available, see if they need to have groceries delivered and provide that for them.
Contact a restaurant that delivers and lets you pay over the phone with a credit card and send them a dinner or two. Be sure to ask first to make sure they feel well enough for the food you would be ordering.
Send get well cards with fun stickers or maybe even a CARE package with cute little stuffed animals, coloring books, and/or a game. (See #2 above.) If you prepare a box ahead of time and just pop it in the mail the minute you know they are sick, it will probably get there while they are still in the midst of it all.

Influenza Is Impacting Caregivers In A Big Way!

Kaye Swain — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:12:53 +0000

Did you know that Weather.com not only tells you the weather report? They have a flu report option as well. I just checked and, as you may have guessed, it’s not a pretty picture. Looking at the entire U.S. in a color code ranging from green to dark red, green means no flu activity and yellow is sporadic. The next three colors are all variations of red to represent local, regional, and widespread cases of the influenza. Sadly, there is only one state that has the lightest shade of red meaning fewer cases. The rest of the U.S. currently is divided between regional and widespread. Other than one loved on in California, all of my friends and family join me in the darkest red – widespread influenza outbreaks.

I pretty much figured that’s what I would find, as we’ve been battling it ourselves off and on for the last couple of weeks. In fact, one of my beloveds is pretty sick and there was a possibility he would have to head for the hospital last nigh, which meant I would have spent the night there watching the others. In preparation for that possibility, I followed my own advice from an earlier article here at SandwichINK, and packed a bag. This morning, when I was blessed to discover he didn’t go in last night, I was thinking how handy the checklist was that accompanied that article. It’s even useful if you’re helping in someone’s home rather than going to the hospital. Since many of you may not have seen it, I thought I would repost it for you – Caregivers’ Hospital Preparation Checklist .

Hopefully you and your loved ones will all stay healthy and you won’t need to take anyone to the hospital, or babysit while someone else does. Just in case you do, I hope you will find that article of help to you, along with the companion article, Hospital Preparation for Caregivers. Also, if you’d like to see what the influenza report is for your area, just go to Weather.com’s Flu Report . They offer the U.S. map for influenza outbreaks. They also provide a variety of health information for things such as SAD and Aches and Pains for Europe and the United Kingdom. You can look for that by clicking on TYPE in Map Collections .