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Becoming an aging parent’s caregiver can be emotionally painful and leave adult children feeling unprepared.

Self-compassion and self-care help caregivers manage grief, exhaustion, and competing responsibilities.

Clarity about a parent’s needs—and your own limits—is essential to creating a sustainable plan of care.

Healthy boundaries, loving kindness, and forgiveness can protect caregivers while deepening family bonds.

There's nothing easy about watching your mother or father get older. Meeting the challenges of supporting an aging parent is no simple matter. As we grow up and make our own way in the world, making peace with the parents who raised us can be challenging even under the best of circumstances. As our own adult lives take shape, and often without warning, the roles begin to reverse. We find ourselves becoming our parents' caregiver and, as with every new season of life, do our best to summon the strength, weather the storms, and harvest the opportunities.

Turning the pages of life and caring for an aging parent means going back to school. Advanced degrees in patience, understanding, loving kindness, and compassion teach us how to support them through painful, difficult transitions, help them make life-altering decisions, adjust to unwelcome changes, and ripen into the better versions of themselves. Some of us become overwhelmed and resentful. We grow distant because it's just too much! And some of us roll up our sleeves and take on the challenges. Standing in for our parents can lead to a newfound........

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