Family is essential in our lives because blood is thicker than water at the end of the day. Sure, you can always add to your family with “chosen family,” which are close friends; regardless, those with whom you share DNA have your back. We all likely have that bizarre uncle or family member, but we accept them for the most part for the simple fact of them being family. I have learned that when situations arise in life that you need support or an extra set of hands, it is family that I can turn to for help. I agree when people say that you may hire someone to be the extra hands regarding childcare. But I have also experienced firsthand that paid child caretakers have limited love for your children. When something better comes up for them, they are gone and don’t look back.
As we age, our parents also age, which can be a hard pill to swallow. To ensure we serve those we love the most, we must commit to open communication and avoid difficult conversations. It is all about the approach to these conversations with our family that determine either a positive or negative outcome. The goal is not to leave a bad taste in anyone’s mouth but rather provide peace of mind for the family as we have hard conversations, especially when the topic is about “when” the time comes as we can’t debate that it shouldn’t be labeled as an “if.” A light approach to these conversations is leveraging tools at our fingertips. There are solutions from photo organizing, journal writing, or digital organization of anything and everything necessary to you that you want your family to know about when you are unavailable. The tools are easy ice-breakers and almost a crutch to difficult conversation starters. When it comes to providing the information on where the breadcrumbs to what is important to you, consider 2ndvault.com, it allows you to delegate a “confidant” and alert the person when you name them. This will lead to a natural conversation from the confidant about what this means, and magic, the hard-to-start conversation just began naturally.
We all want the best for our family, even if we have had some bumps along the way. Family is the most likely to forgive even if they don’t forget. It is not easy to decide and successfully fire a family member and never hear from or see them again. At some point, a family celebration or family challenge will bring you back together, and with that embracing, this notion serves us all better. It is easy to get caught up in daily life and miss out on the big picture because we all enter and exit this world humbly and hope to have our family surrounding us when we do.
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