14. Just a carer

ONE DAY AT A TIME
Meditations for Carers
14. Just a carer
Zephaniah 3.17

‘And what do you do?’ people ask, pretty much as the first question after you’ve been introduced. Do you say, ‘Nothing really’? Or do you find yourself stammering as you search for something to say along the lines of, ‘I look after my husband/wife/child’ while watching the interest disappear in the other person’s face? It’s strange how undervalued being a carer is in a society that would collapse financially and
practically if we stopped doing it! (Pause for a moment and allow yourself the naughty pleasure of imagining every carer in the country bringing the one they care for and parking them at the door of No. 10 Downing Street just for ten minutes! Central London would grind to a halt . . .)

People who haven’t been in your situation have no idea what your task involves. Those who do it for a salary get training and qualifications. Nowadays it’s possible to do a Master’s degree in caring! Those of us who have had to learn on the job have no diploma to show for the hours spent finding out the hard way how to do things. But we know it’s a real job requiring real and specialist skills, a tiring job that drains us physically and emotionally. It’s too easy, hidden away at home, to feel invisible and unappreciated...


Taken from One Day at a Time: Meditations for Carers by Dorothy M.Stewart