Suddenly your child gets sick, and then it got real!
How prepared are you?
A Parents Nightmare!
Experiencing the sandwich generation from the middle can be a challenging thing during a pandemic. Especially if you’re a business owner. Things can be going along day by day seemingly good, despite COVID restrictions and a hurting economy. From where you’re at the pandemic might mostly be something on the news or in social media… and then it got real!
I sincerely hope that you or your family have not been affected. If you have I hope all will be well and that you’ve been able to navigate giving or getting the support you need to make it through. If you’ve been lucky enough to not be impacted directly yet, you might know someone who has or know someone who knows someone who has. It can get real in a hurry.
How prepared are you?
The other day I learned of someone whose son, a 26 year old otherwise healthy person with no apparent underlying factors, had been infected by a variant of the virus. It’s the kind of thing no parent ever wants to hear. Then, in a very short time frame, his health diminished to the point where he needed to be admitted to the hospital. Once there the doctors determined that he would likely need to go on a respirator soon.
Only 26 years old! His whole life ahead of him.
I can only imagine what it must feel like to have your child experience this. At this point you don’t know what the prognosis is or how long your child will need to be on the respirator. Even though many do recover, you don’t know for sure if your child will even survive. That’s an incredible amount of stress for a parent to be under.
There are many reasons to have a goal of having your business to be able to operate equally well whether you are there or not. In my opinion, this is one of the biggest!
Carrying A Real Burden
If you have other kids to care for, especially younger ones, this places a huge burden on you; a real burden. What about your parents? If you are that sandwich generation care giver then this could severely impact your ability to care for your ageing parents.
Now what if you’re also a business owner who is heavily involved in the daily operation of your business? Imagine that when all this happens is exactly when a massive project deadline is fast approaching. One that could make or break your business during these challenging economic times. Or imagine that you are the only one who is capable of dealing with certain aspects of the business and you have to be there.
What do you do? How will the emotional stress of your child’s illness, or your need to be there at their side, impact your business? How will the whole situation affect your decision making?
One of my core values is family first. Many parents will automatically turn immediately to the needs of their child. But the decision may not be that easy for some. Depending on your health or risk status you might not even be able to be there, in person, alongside your child.
Steps Towards Being Prepared
As I said earlier, I really hope this is not a situation you ever find yourself in but if you did… are you prepared? Are you prepared to be there in every way necessary for your child AND prepared to continue care for your other children and your parents AND for your business to not miss much of a beat if you need to step away completely for a while?
Even if you can stay involved in your business as you care for your child, can you lessen the load to offset the emotional burden you might be carrying?
There are many reasons to have a goal of having your business to be able to operate equally well whether you are there or not. In my opinion, this is one of the biggest!
Begin now to take the steps you need to so that you can have a clear answer for each of these four questions.
Become clear of your answer to these:
- How can your business carry on without you there?
- Who can step in to care for your other children at home?
- Who can step in to care for your parents?
- Who do you have to help care for you and your needs during a time like this?
When It Gets Real… Value Self Care
I ask that last question because so often the natural instinct is for you to forget about yourself and be 100% focused on that someone else. You need to sleep, to nourish healthfully, to hydrate, to move, and to off load your emotional stress healthfully. Doing so will enable you to be that much better of a care giver to those who need your attention.
As I write this I don’t know the current status or prognosis of that young 26 year old.
Significant health issues are often not something that you can predict. It’s like insurance. You need to take steps now to be ready for when it gets real.
Waiting until it hits is too late. So what are you going to do to be prepared? … just in case!
Need some help with this? Join us in our One Wave Global Community. We support one another to create change to handle things when it gets real!
Read Part 2 of this post topic, where I share about the challenges of caring for an ageing parent during a pandemic.
So What’s your next step? Creating the change you want can be hard if you go it alone.
