What's your major? I'm majoring in Sandwich Generation with a minor in Allergies

[Anonymous]

I’m currently majoring in elderly parent with a degenerative disease refusing to downsize from their giant 5 bedroom borderline hoarder home.

I also recently enrolled in a minor of new onset tween eye rolling and talking back. I feel very poorly prepared for this course.

And I’m completely stalled out on deciding whether to enroll in 1) coast through a highly flexible, but dead end career 101 or 2) ramp up to more ambitious career and make more money but work more hours 204. Leaning toward the first one, but sometimes wonder if the grass would be greener on the other side.

Does flexibility or money help more with the coursework in sandwich-ing?

[Anonymous]

I’m currently in a long term work/study program that focuses on driving my elderly parents to all their appointments and doing their grocery shopping.

I’ll be doing a summer class called “College Kid Home on Summer Break 201.” Having completed 101, I know that it’ll be fun and interesting for the first few weeks, but by the end of the session I’ll be very stressed by it.

[Anonymous]

I wish I had something clever to say. Sending hugs to all struggling like we do

[Anonymous]

This made me feel a lot less alone. Thanks to all the creative writers on DCUM!

Question - has it always been like this and people just didn't talk about it? Somehow this feels like a particularly nasty stew of issues that we are all dealing with... I can't wait to get to the grandchildren and life of leisure phase. (or is it just a fantasy?)

[Anonymous]

Double major in Special Needs Parenting and Running Your Own Business, with a minor in Retirement Planning for People Who are Bad with Money.

I did recently complete a degree in Setting Boundaries with Dysfunctional Family of Origin, though there are a lot of continuing education requirements to keep that degree current.

[Anonymous]

I just switched my major from Eldercare Management to Grief & Loss.

Ongoing continuing education coursework
in Marriage & Family Dynamics with a seminar on In-Law Codependency & Learned Helplessness: Cognitive Decline.

[Anonymous]

I’m double majoring in Surviving a Toxic Workplace and Getting Your Child Into College. My long-suffering spouse is majoring in Managing a Parent with Dementia without Losing your own Mind.

[Anonymous]

I majored in Soecial Ed Advocacy and long term care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just switched my major from Eldercare Management to Grief & Loss.

Ongoing continuing education coursework
in Marriage & Family Dynamics with a seminar on In-Law Codependency & Learned Helplessness: Cognitive Decline.

This PP and I need to add that have “needs improvement” and “incompletes: missing assignment(s)” in Home Improvement, Intro to Home Decor, Home Maintenance 101, Home Decluttering when You’ve Inherited Clutter and Adult Orphans: It’s a Thing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just switched my major from Eldercare Management to Grief & Loss.

Ongoing continuing education coursework
in Marriage & Family Dynamics with a seminar on In-Law Codependency & Learned Helplessness: Cognitive Decline.

This PP and I need to add that have “needs improvement” and “incompletes: missing assignment(s)” in Home Improvement, Intro to Home Decor, Home Maintenance 101, Home Decluttering when You’ve Inherited Clutter and Adult Orphans: It’s a Thing

Recommend you sign up for Advanced Magical Thinking next semester per example of upperclassman above. I'm taking it right now and it is fantastic! It's really helping me with the effective coping strategies I need to get my life under control!

[Anonymous]

I successfully graduated with flying colors from "Shepherding SN kid through school and getting him admitted to college", without realizing that usually it tends to require graduate school, "SN kid struggles in college and can't land an internship". Hoping to avoid the post-graduate seminar, "Failure to Launch".

Graduate requirements forced me to enroll against my will for "Other kid has auto-immune disease" and "Green card issues: might be kicked out of country".

Electives are "Mild Cognitive Impairment in the elderly" and "Perimenopause: fun with insomnia and panic attacks!".

Droll. Very droll.

(Thanks for reviving this thread.)

[Anonymous]

Geography. Trying a identifying a location where a disabled elder can take a child alone on vacation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m currently majoring in elderly parent with a degenerative disease refusing to downsize from their giant 5 bedroom borderline hoarder home.

I also recently enrolled in a minor of new onset tween eye rolling and talking back. I feel very poorly prepared for this course.

And I’m completely stalled out on deciding whether to enroll in 1) coast through a highly flexible, but dead end career 101 or 2) ramp up to more ambitious career and make more money but work more hours 204. Leaning toward the first one, but sometimes wonder if the grass would be greener on the other side.

Does flexibility or money help more with the coursework in sandwich-ing?

As the one with the flexible career among my siblings, I think flexibility, but that's assuming that there will be enough money and that "more flexibility" means you'll be able to provide more help, not that you'll do it all, which I do NOT recommend.

My mom is in a really good CCRC and there are ways to hire out a lot of needs, but it's very helpful to be able to show up for certain things (helping her sort through stuff, following up on tasks we're outsourcing, attending/Zooming quarterly care conferences).

I've got nothing on how to get someone to move if they don't want to move (hello, in-laws). I did gather information about various options so if there was an objection to some element of living in a CCRC, I was able to say, "If you live in X, you can Y" and to say "X has a 9-12 month waiting list for the sort of place you're willing to consider, so you you need to factor that in."

Sighing in exhausted unison with everyone here.

[Anonymous]

Well I finally passed Moving an Elderly Parent to Memory Care- that particular class was especially grueling, with prerequisites of Moving an Elderly Parent to Independent Living and Moving an Elderly Parent to Assisted Living. It was a years-long course and the hardest class I’ve ever taken. The prerequisite was Sending Kid to College, and there were no breaks between the classes.

Now that I’ve completed that course I’ve signed up for College Kid Moving Home After Graduation. I’m not sure how I’m going to do in that class. I feel like I’ve been in school forever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This made me feel a lot less alone. Thanks to all the creative writers on DCUM!

Question - has it always been like this and people just didn't talk about it? Somehow this feels like a particularly nasty stew of issues that we are all dealing with... I can't wait to get to the grandchildren and life of leisure phase. (or is it just a fantasy?)

LOL. When are my Golden Years? My friends and I were just talking about this. In our early sixties. Aren’t we supposed to be on a cruise or something and not arguing with mom about whether her elderly pet with bladder control issues can go to assisted living with her?