The previous post suggested five ways parents of hospitalized kids can respond when people offer to help. The longer your child’s illness lasts, the more ways people can assist you. Here are five more ideas for the people who want to make your situation manageable.
Pet Care
Arrange for someone to care for your pets in your home or provide “foster care” in theirs.
Laundry
Have someone drop off clean clothes once or twice a week and talke your dirty ones home to launder.
Technology
If you’re uncomfortable with technology, have a teenager or computer guru create and update a webpage for you on www.carepages.com or www.caringbridge.com. Or ask a techie friend to help you connect with the outside world by downloading your digital camera, sending out pictures via email, ordering prints, dealing with cell phone issues, or creating a facebook account.
Yard work
Depending on the season, ask a neighbor to mow, water, shovel snow, and tend flower beds.
Cleaning
A long absence can leave your house and refrigerator pretty skanky. Ask volunteers to give your house a thorough going over before you come home. They can even throw the moldy stuff in the refrigerator away and stock it with milk, eggs, and bread. Coming home to a clean house makes the transition from hospital to real life go much smoother.
If accepting help or admitting that you need assistance is hard for you, remember that the people who care about you are hurting for you, too. When let them shoulder your needs, not only are they ministering to you, you are ministering to them.
In my next post, you’ll learn five more ways people can help when you’re in the hospital with a sick child.
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