“What is your Caregiver SuperPower”
I’m J Smiles, comedian, Alzheimer’s and Dementia activist, and family caregiver. You may know me from Parenting Up™, where we’re a family of caregivers taking care of our family members together. Welcome to P.U.B. the Parenting Up Blog.
Have you ever noticed how there's so many tests available in the world that's aimed to help you learn more about who you are? There's tests that helps you determine your love language, tests that helps you discover parts of yourself that would be otherwise unknown, there's even tests that reveals what profession you would be most likely to succeed in.
For people like me, I have taken almost every test out there in the journey of discovering myself. I must admit, they have not all been in vain. I have a clear understanding of my love language, my professional ambitions, my ancestry. But you know, what good is the knowledge of these things if I am not able to live them. Once you obtain such wisdom of self, you will absolutely learn what your ace in the hole is. What the one thing about yourself that you have 101% faith that you will prevail whenever you play this card. This card is your superpower.
Now, with all the tests in the world, there is none that prepares you for what it takes to become a great caregiver. Like myself, most of us gain the awareness of our caregiver superpower as we go, there's no list or guide. Until now! With the help of the Parenting Up community, I have compiled a list of ten traits that make up our caregiver personality superpower list. These are ranked in no particular order and the list is everchanging, so feel free to send suggestions my way of what you think should be on our list.
- Compassion
- Optimism
- Confidence
- Patience
- Flexibility
- The ability to laugh
- Communication
- Organization
- Elasticity
- Problem Solving
To get a complete break down and explanation of each of these, please listen to this podcast episode. Just from the basic meaning of the words, you have a pretty clear insight on what each superpower means. When you look at the list, you may realize that you actually have more than one superpower. You may even recognize that some of these you lacked prior to becoming a caregiver, but since then, you have obtained the ability. For example, before becoming a caregiver you may have lacked patience. But since caring for your LO, you have become more patience than you ever thought you could be in your life.
My three superpowers are: patience, communication, and problem solving. Each of these have become more refined since being the full time caregiver for Zetty. However, my ace in the hole is..... PROBLEM SOLVING.
What's yours?
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🎧Full audio podcast episode for this blog post: I'm on the edge of quitting Caregiving!
