People, please forgive me if you don't find this amusing. My sense of humour is my best defense against my 90-something mother's dementia and her constant unreasonable demands. I was inspired to write this when I noticed that I was almost out of peanut butter - and it occurred to me how my mother would interpret it: Perfect sense: "Hey - my peanut butter jar on the kitchen counter is almost empty! I don't remember almost finishing off that peanut butter. Someone must have stolen it! Someone broke into my apartment and stole my peanut butter!! But there's no sign of break-in. It must have been someone in management who has a key! It must be Eva because she looks Eastern European. Also, she's overweight, so she's probably one of those people who can't control their eating. Yes that's it! She saw my peanut butter during the annual apartment inspection last month, and she resolved to come back to steal it!! I'm calling the police!" We did in fact have to convince her to not call the police when she thought a small bathroom rug was stolen which the caregiver had taken out to wash. Another time she was absolutely convinced that someone stole her prune juice! She had hidden it under the couch and when I found it, it was past the due date so I threw it out. And she's so upset when we don't seem to believe her - she complains that we believe everybody else except her. Everyone here seems to have similar stories. Sigh.
So my parent got a post office box where they transferred all their mail. Thus back then they were still driving they would daily go to the post office box. Mom was happy that the mailman wasn't delivering the mail. I just had to ask her, who do you think is putting the mail in the post office box?
I was like, "Say what??" And she pointed to a disposable glove dispenser with a pair of gloves sticking out the top (I guess those were the wings).
I love it! My Mom has Alzheimer's, just had to place she and step-father in long term assisted living a few weeks ago. I must say that God has his hands on those caregivers; especially when it comes to my step-father....oye vey...and I'm not Jewish!
Both our daughter and myself use humor when things like this happen.
It's like really Mom, you think so and so did this? Well, you just sit tight and I'm going to set things straight right now! Nobody can come in here and mess with your things much less steal from you. Then I'd walk out and let the caregiver in on it and stand outside the door chastising the person so your Mom will think it's being taken care of by you. Then make sure they have extra supplies for her; that way you can come back in with a new jar of peanut butter.
See Mom, I took care of that! Any time you have a problem like this, you just let me know.
She'll be happy until the next time. It will be hard to keep from laughing.
People get way too serious about these conditions. I'm not saying that these issues are funny, but laughter is the best medicine....for you.
Statistics show that the more you can laugh about stressful situations, the better it is for you and your heart. What you have going on Susansusan should be looked at more like a prank. No one is being hurt and your Mom gets satisfaction. Then you and the caregiver can laugh about it when you're out of ear shot with Mom.
Laugh people. There isn't any harm with laughing and you're not going to help for doing it. Yes, it breaks our hearts, but wouldn't you rather remember the time when Mom or Dad did something like this and you were able to make that lemonade out of the lemons you're dealing with right now?,