I've been taking care of my elderly mother for the last few years. my brother comes out to see her once every couple of weeks, bringing a bunch of screaming kids then going to a noisy public place. since my mother is hard of hearing and this means that he basically never talks to her (she can hear nothing at all when he visits).
He doesn't understand how difficult she is becoming. I finally managed to get him to see how much of her personality was fading with old age and that she needed to see just him sometimes. The problem is that now he never brings his wife or kids and she misses them.
It's hard enough taking care of an elderly parent that I hate (she let me be abused as a kid) but I can't deal with my supposedly 'normal' brother's problems. I'm about at burn out time. I sometimes dream about hitting my mother until she stops existing. I won't but I'm that close to burn out and my brother makes me feel as if I am responsible for his mistakes too.
i know that this isn't well explained but i only have my brother and my mother and it seems as if i have to solve all of their problems when i can barely deal with my own.
01 Mar 2011, 12:28 pm
