Parentsitting with Kip Lewis

As caregivers we devote so much time and energy to our parents that we often end up neglecting our own well-being. In this episode of Parentsitting, I share some of the conscious decisions I made to reconnect with myself and how admitting I needed help ultimately allowed me to see the light again.

In this episode, I talk about how dementia slowly robs us of the time we have left with our loved ones, and in many ways, takes the relationships we once knew along with it. I also share some of my personal experiences with my parents over the past month, which I think will resonate with anyone who has faced dementia or Alzheimer's.

On this episode I discuss a routine trip to see my parents that took a turn for the worse. How I ended up spending six straight days and evenings at a hospital, and how it was the beginning of a reckoning that life doesn't last forever. 

As I continue down this journey of " parentsitting", I've recently come to understand how apathy plays a significant role in dementia, something I hadn't fully recognized before. In this episode, I also share what has been the most difficult day of my adult life: the day I  moved my parents out of their home and made the difficult decision to take the car keys away.

On this episode I tackle something everyone who has a parent with dementia thinks about at one point or another, specifically, wondering if what we are seeing is our own future.  I share the moment it really hit me, as well as how I've decided to deal with it personally. And the letter I wrote to my parents' years before they began their cognitive decline.

On this Episode I tackle some of the hard decisions that we all have to make at some point when dealing with dementia. Here I share how the roof on my parents' house became the final straw and how their issues while driving led to one of the most difficult decisions that I've had to make. Why did we end up in court and more.

In episode two, I share how a few basic financial mistakes first caught my attention and eventually led me to take a deeper look into my parents' finances. I also talk about my own shortcomings in navigating their dementia and hos visits to their home revealed the scammers who were trying to take advantage of them.

In this first episode of Parentsitting, I explain why I chose to step into this space and start a conversation about a topic that doesn’t receive nearly enough attention—despite how many families across the country are living with a parent or loved one battling dementia. In this episode, I share some of the early signs I initially missed, why their mail became such a telling indicator, and how my early reactions unintentionally strained our relationship.

Join me on this journey as I explain why I decided to discuss and share my experiences of taking care of two parents battling Dementia.