Tag Archives: advice

Jan15

Is Further Education Worth It?

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Is Further Education Worth It?

Going into further education after leaving school seems like the best option for many. At eighteen years old, you don’t know what you want to do. So instead of going full time at a job you despise and would love to bring down from the inside, you choose to pursue the highs and lows of university life.

But is it all worth it? Tuition fees have skyrocketed, and continue to raise, leaving graduates mired in debt. Furthermore, the jobs you wanted aren’t available, too many applicants, not enough positions. Was your three, four, or five years sitting hungover in lecture halls a waste of time?

Finances:

Paying for college is expensive and a student loan will ease a lot of money troubles when at university and websites like SoFi (read here) can help to find the best loan for you. While some choose to work while they study, there are others who don’t want to or can’t and will need to consider what financial shape they will be in upon graduating.

While there are national student debt relief programs available to help graduates through this, you should also consider other ways of paying off your loans. It is smart to begin paying back as soon as you graduate. Otherwise, you will find it hard to start prioritizing your debt when you need to pay for rent, food, and everything in between.

Keep in mind that there are less expensive alternatives to a full on university. Trade schools will give you all of the knowledge you need to start your career as soon as you graduate. Online schooling can also help cut costs. If that is something you are interested in, you can take a look online to See Learn Now IGCSE courses, or you can get in touch with one of your local community colleges.

Health:

You are allowed to let loose at college. If you aren’t there for the social side, then you will miss out big time on some priceless experiences. But doing this can cause your health to suffer in the long run. People get so into the party lifestyle that they can develop conditions such as alcoholism or nicotine addiction due to their actions while studying.

It’s hard to keep on top of your health; you eat what and when you can and many often suffer from the Freshman Fifteen when first starting. You have so much free time at university that it pays to get into good habits then and not try to repair the damage later. Furthermore, the stress that comes from student debt and deadlines can hurt your mental health, as well. However, universities will offer free counseling if you find yourself struggling to cope with the demands.

Career:

Studying something at university is supposed to set you up for entering a related career in the future. But how many people have you met who studied something, say marketing, and are still droning away behind a till?

It takes time to find the job that you want, and getting it straight out of university is unlikely, but now we are seeing people some five or more years in the future still working away at the same job they had in school. Some people have taken steps towards fixing this by retraining later in life to give them much-needed experience, without having to quit their job.

Or, it might be the case that you are looking to further your existing career and education is the way that you can do this. You can look into something like dod cysp if this is relevant to you such as if you are a whiz with computers and want to help the government to help you pay for your further education.

So, if you want to go to university, then go for it. This isn’t supposed to warn you off pursuing further education. But you know yourself, and you need to be aware of what the future may hold upon graduation. Most people who graduated will tell you that university is worth it, but not necessarily in the way that you might think.

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Jan12

New Year’s Resolutions Worth Keeping

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New Year’s Resolutions Worth Keeping

The clock strikes 12, it’s finally 2018. Everybody is celebrating and a lot of people are coming up with new year’s resolutions. A lot of them involve losing weight or drinking less alcohol and they don’t usually last that long. If you go to the gym at the beginning of January, it’ll be packed but just a few weeks later, half of those people have gone. The generic resolutions that people make often go out of the window because they just aren’t that valuable. If you really want to make something stick, you need to pick a great resolution that will make a significant positive change in your life, just like some of these:

Quit Smoking:

We don’t need to tell you that smoking is bad for your health so if you’re a smoker, the start of a new year is a great opportunity to try to quit. The reason that most people fail is because they try to go cold turkey straight away. It’s difficult to succeed that way and if you’re serious about quitting, you need some help. Get some e-cigarettes and CBD juice to replace the cigarettes. It’s not the ideal situation because you’re still relying on that e-cigarette but it’s a good stepping stone and it’s nowhere near as bad for your health. There is also loads of great free help and advice on quitting smoking that you can get, which you can speak to your doctor about.

Drink Less Alcohol:

The key word here is ‘less.’ If you try to cut out drinking completely, you’ll get to the end of the week and find that you fancy a drink with friends. There’s nothing wrong with having a casual drink once or twice a week. What you should be doing instead is just cutting down on drinking. For example, if you would have a drink after work during the week, cut that out and just stick to weekends. Or you could just go out on Saturday instead of Friday and Saturday. These small changes will improve your health and save you a bit of money, but they don’t constitute a huge change to your lifestyle like giving up drinking completely would.

Cut Out Toxic People:

Most new year’s resolutions are focused around improving yourself by cutting out unhealthy habits, but you probably haven’t thought about cutting out people. When you’re around people that are overly negative all of the time, that rubs off on you and it can really affect your mood. If you spend a lot of your time with people like this, it can make you feel very negative yourself which has a knock on effect on all areas of your life and stop you from improving yourself. Cutting somebody out of your life can be difficult and it’s often very awkward, but you’ve just got to be upfront about it. Simply tell them that you don’t want to be around them while they’re being so negative. In a lot of cases, you might find that it’s the kick they need to make a change in their own life and you won’t end up cutting them out at all.

These three resolutions are valuable ones that you can keep easily and will positively affect your health, mental health, and wallet.

Featured Image By: Pixabay

Jan12

Keeping Your Canine Clean

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Keeping Your Canine Clean

Despite regular washes, careful consideration when choosing places to play, and deliberate avoidance of bad weather, most dogs will find themselves filthy at the end of the week. The life of an animal like this is a dynamic one, and there isn’t time for thoughts of keeping clean. Instead, you have to be there to consider this for them, handling all of the dirty work. To help you out with this, this post will be exploring some of the areas you’ll have to consider when you’re trying to keep your canine clean:

Regular Washes:

To begin, it’s always a good idea to get your dog used to the idea of being washed. Most mutts will love this treatment, lapping up the chance to get wet. Others, though, may be scared of water, making it hard to clean them up. A weekly routine of small showers will be much easier to maintain than one with a wider gap, as your dog will be much cleaner at the start of each session. If you need help in this area, there are loads of companies out there that can clean your dog for you.

Grooming & Maintenance:

Like any good doggy salon, these places aren’t just dedicated to cleaning, and they will be able to give your dog a brand new haircut. While also giving your dog a new style, this sort of approach will limit their chances of knotted and dirty fur. It can be a lot easier to keep a dog clean when they have short fur, just like humans find it, too. Along with trimming their fur, grooming companies will be able to keep their claws trimmed and their teeth clean, too. In some cases, they may even have a vet on hand to give your friend a short checkup while they have their makeover.

Pest Control:

Finally, as the last element to consider, it’s time to think about pest control, and how you can achieve it with your dog. As dogs have to be able to go outside, they are constantly at risk of taking on parasites, like fleas and worms. Using a product like Comfortis on a regular basis will make it significantly easier to avoid the issues that often come with these nasty creatures. Of course, though, you should also think about their health during this stage, and taking them to the vet is a great way to have their potential parasites treated and removed.

Keeping a dog is often a delicate balance. On one side, you want to keep them happy, giving them the entertainment and exercise that they need. On the other, though, most dog owners will struggle to keep them clean in the process, as most of a dog’s needs have to be handled outside. There are loads of resources around the web which can help you through this process!

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Jan8

3 Types Of Insurance That You Need To Have

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3 Types Of Insurance That You Need To Have

There are a lot of different types of insurance, but it isn’t always clear why you need them. Insurance can feel like you are paying a lot of money each month or year for something that ‘might’ happen. You might feel like insurance isn’t worth getting, but you would be wrong. Here are three types of insurance that you simply need to have:

Car Insurance:

It is illegal to drive and operate a car without insurance. That is a simple truth. You need to get car insurance, but how much coverage you get is up to you. You might feel that you only need the minimum and that you will never get into a car accident. But what if you do? What if you are in an accident and then have to make a huge payout either to fix the car or to somebody else? What if your car breaks down by the side of the road and you have to pay extra or can’t get a road site pick up? What if you lose the only key to your car and can’t get into it? The same rules apply to various other vehicles too, like vans and motorbikes. Don’t just consider van insurance, get van insurance! You need to be protected when driving, whether it’s from other drivers or from your vehicle.

There are so many things that can go wrong when driving and owning a car and the above are only a few possibilities. You want to ensure that you are covered for a myriad of problems. They might just be something that could potentially happen, but you will be kicking yourself in the behind if it does happen and you aren’t covered. Instead, you want to make sure that you have roadside assistance, key coverage, breakdown coverage, and decent all around insurance. It also might be wise to find a car accident attorney near you should you need one because you just never know. All of this will help to make sure that you can drive safe in the knowledge that you are properly insured and ready for emergencies that may arise.

Medical Insurance:

Medical insurance is something that you might not need to use for years, but then you are suddenly ill, and it becomes the most important thing in the world. If you have a health & medical insurance plan, then you are ensuring that you will be taken care of should you become ill. This might be something as simple as needing to have your appendix removed or something as serious as having cancer. You need to make sure that you have decent medical insurance. It might be costly, but you need it.

If you become ill and need to go to a hospital without medical insurance, then your standard of care will be far lower, and you might not be able to get treatment for certain things without paying incredible sums of money that you cannot afford. The amount that you get back if you need to claim your medical insurance dwarfs the amount that you would be paying each month or year. To learn more about health insurance plans that would be a good fit for you, simply enter a search for “Health Insurance Florida” (or your local area) to get started. Be sure to research multiple different plans and ask any questions that you have – your good health depends on it.

Home & Contents Insurance:

Home and contents insurance cover your house in case you are burgled or if something else happens to your home such as a flood, burst pipe, or anything that will damage your property or your items within. If you own a lot of expensive goods such as electrical items, then you should get the insurance to cover them and make sure that if they get stolen or break, then you aren’t left having to pay out of pocket for new ones. Home and content insurance is just another cost of living that you need to factor in, because if you don’t have it and something happens, then you might be left with nothing.

Paying for insurance is an admitted hassle, but can you imagine the trouble you would be in if you went without it?

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Jan3

Switching Careers Out Of Left Field – A Handy Guide

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Switching Careers Out Of Left Field – A Handy Guide

Switching careers out of left field can be a difficult thing to do. Not only does it immediately set you off outside of your comfort zone, but it can take years of sacrifice and lower income to get to a level that you’re finally happy with. However, sometimes going for a career with less room for growth or taking on a position with less rewards, money, and benefits can be perfect if you’re happy with what you’re doing. Not every job requires you to earn millions of dollars to make the entire affair bearable. Some things you can genuinely enjoy from the bottom of your heart, a concept which can become relatively blurred when we have yet to experience it.

Many people are hesitant to switch to a career that they truly enjoy because they feel like time has passed them by. As you age and become comfortable in a set routine, this can be harder and harder to change. But, age is always nothing but a number. You can change careers at almost any time you want, provided you have a reasonable amount of time left before retirement! But what should you keep in mind when you do this? We’re here to find out:

Education:

You should consider yourself at square one when choosing a completely new career. How do you proceed in a field you know little about? You learn about it’s nuances and quirks. Job training will always help out, particularly if you start from a lowly position. If you have the funding or the loan eligibility, then applying for a university course both online or offline in an institution can help you gain a fast track to mental competence (Provided you take your studies seriously!).

It might seem worrying going back to college, especially when you believe you’ll be older than almost everyone in your class. However, you’d be surprised at how many mature people return to university for the same purpose as you. This is especially true in fine arts courses, such as music, film, fashion, and graphic design. It’s common for people with successful STEM careers to find out they had an inner artist all along just yearning to break free.

Resume:

When you hope to change jobs, you once again become a candidate. It’s likely you have built up a respectable amount of job experience by this point, meaning that you have all the possibility in the world of making a great impression. List all of the achievements you have made at your previous work. It counts, even if it has little or nothing to do with the new role. People often look for transferable skills, not the specifics of your job.

For example, someone who is competent at running a film set need not be someone skilled in producing, but someone who managed events for a period of time. There is likely more overlap with your career now than you might have originally estimated. If you need help crafting a modern resume, CV advice services are on hand to offer you a deft and careful touch in its writing. A good employer will see this value immediately, but only if you succeed in selling yourself with appealing language.

These two disciplines – building the new while highlighting the value of the old can combine, and help you create a career that you truly desire and deserve.

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Jan2

Ensuring Your New Year’s Resolutions Stick

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Ensuring Your New Year’s Resolutions Stick

The New Year is upon us, and if you’re like the majority of people in the western world, chances are that you’ve made a resolution or two. Perhaps you’ve decided to make 2018 the year you get serious about exercising, giving up drugs and alcohol, or volunteering in your local community.

Whatever your resolutions are, if you want to stick to them, you’re going to have to get serious because approximately 80 percent of all resolutions are broken by February! If you want to buck that trend, here are a few things that you can do:

Small Steps:

In January, it makes sense to start small. Instead of resolving to spend six days in the gym every week, start with two or three. That way, your resolutions will be much easier to stick to, and you can build upon them as time goes by instead of doing too much too soon, burning out and failing!

One Thing at a Time:

You might want to quit smoking, take up lifting, and eliminate any and all junk from your diet, but numerous studies have shown that the more you try to do, the less likely you are to succeed at changing any of your habits. So, instead of doing the traditional thing of writing down multiple resolutions and trying to work on them all at once, try working on one at a time. Once you’ve got the exercising habit down, then start working on your diet, and so on. Chances are you’ll be much more successful.

Share Them:

Whatever your New Year’s resolutions are, it’s always worth sharing them with others, whether that be friends, family, or even a dedicated support group. Why? Because once you let people know what your intentions are, you’ll be more motivated to stick to your goals and see results, so that you don’t let them down. Not only that but having the support of a group can make the whole process simpler.

Track It:

Whether you’re using an app to track how many pounds you’ve lost, a calendar to mark off every day you’ve gone without a drink/smoke/etc., or something like My Fitness Pal to log the nutritional value of your food, keeping track of your progress is a great way to keep your head in the game. Try it!

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Log that progress!

Seek Help:

Whether it’s a personal trainer, an intervention specialist, or your spouse, asking for help from someone who understands your issues and wants to help you overcome them can be a very effective way of not only sticking to your resolutions but of achieving your goals, too.

Don’t Be Too Hard on Yourself:

Remind yourself that there isn’t such a thing as perfection. Just because you caved and ate a piece of cake a week after you vowed to give up sugar doesn’t mean that you’re a failure. The only thing that will make you a failure is throwing in the towel. Most people slip when they’re trying to make positive changes to their lives. But it is the ones who don’t beat themselves up, who stand back up, and keep fighting, who get to where they want to be eventually!

Good Luck!

Featured Image By: Pixabay

Jan2

New Year, New Home

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New Year, New Home

The New Year is the perfect time to start thinking about revamping your home. Traditionally, a lot of people wait until the spring to spruce up their homes, but that just means that they don’t get to enjoy the change in the weather quite so much. No, the winter time when it’s cold, and we’ve just started a new calendar is the best time for fixing up the home and here are some tips to help you with that:

Clear Your Clutter:

Chances are that you’re entering the New Year with the aim of cleansing your body and keeping it as clear and clutter-free as possible. Why not do the same for your home? A house that is free from clutter is a house that looks great, allows you to live life exactly how you want to, and best of all, is easy to clean. So, pick a room and start decluttering. Do the same with another room tomorrow and keep going until you have no stuff in your home that you don’t expressly want to be there.

Ensure it’s Safe:

Your house is your home, your safe haven, and the one place you can retreat to and not have to worry about the outside world. So, it’s important that it is really safe. Now is the perfect time to go around your property checking that the security cameras work, ensuring that the fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors are in great shape, and testing the locks on your doors and windows. That way, you’ll have a safe and snug 2018.

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Is your smoke alarm working?

Keep It Clean:

A clean house is an inviting house. When your home looks and smells god, it makes you and your guests happy to be there. So, make 2018 the year when you finally get serious about chores. To make it easy for yourself, invest in the basics like rubber gloves, brushes, cleaning fluids, and dusters and store them all in one central location. Then, draw up a schedule of when you’ll clean each room or when you’ll complete each cleaning task. By grouping tasks like cleaning the windows or vacuuming the carpets together, it’ll be easier to keep your home cleaner without missing anything or spending too much time on it.

Mend the Cracks:

January is an excellent time to call in the handyman and have him do all of those little jobs like patching up the holes in the basement floor or re-tiling the roof, that you haven’t got around to yet. Why? Because handymen are often less busy at this time of year, before the spring rush, so you can get things done more quickly, and sometimes even cheaper, than at other times of the year.

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Patch it up!

A Fresh Coat of Paint:

Last, but not least, if you want to seriously spruce your home up for the New Year, why not treat it to a lick of paint? It’s amazing how transformative a new color on the walls can be, and it needn’t cost you too much money or time (Get the handyman to do it.), either!

Here’s to a fabulous ‘new’ home this year!

Featured Image By: Pixabay

Dec22

Getting Educated And Qualified Without Quitting Your Day Job

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Getting Educated And Qualified Without Quitting Your Day Job

No matter if you’ve already passed your initial schooling phase in your teens or late adulthood, it is never too late to get educated. Studies show that a considerable chunk of people would like a career change of some sort, and branch off into something that they are more interested in. Sadly, that is not always possible without the correct qualifications or the know-how.

Fortunately, we live in a time where education does not always have to be a completely full-time ordeal. Now, more flexible schedules which allow you to still work at least part-time are more than realistic. Not only that, but you could go ahead and get yourself qualified with some short courses, which take a few weeks or months rather than several years of school. No matter which scenario might suit you more, both are just as feasible for the average person and can be arranged if you just take the correct steps forward:

Getting educated:

Due to the nature of the modern working world, it is not always possible for everyone to take a few years out from work to fully dedicate themselves to studying, while the rent goes unpaid. Working at least part-time is a necessity for a large majority of adults in most countries and, unless you are able to balance working and studying simultaneously, then chances are you won’t be able to indulge in the sweet enriching world of education.

Before you give up completely, you should at least check out the different schedules available, and get familiarized with the different timetables available to see if you could make it work somehow. Always wanted to become a doctor? Go ahead and check the medical school tuition fees, and see if it is something that you could feasibly get invested in. Feel like programming is something which you would like to do as a career? Go and see if you can find local computer science courses. The sky’s the limit, so get out there and start planning your future in a field that you are truly passionate about.

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Knowledge is power!

Short courses for busy people:

If getting involved in any sort of long-term education is a big red flag for you, then there are always shorter courses which still provide you with industry standard qualifications in various fields but take considerably less time to complete. Whether you want to learn how to play the guitar or find out how to publish books, there will be a course out there which will catch your eye.

A somewhat popular series of courses are provided by companies certified by Adobe themselves, which run training courses in the Adobe Creative Suite which can result in you getting the title of a “Adobe Certified Associate”. Not only does it sound prestigious, but it is just as useful as it sounds. Depending on what you are interested in, you can pick up some certificates for any program in the suite that is relevant to your interests. Whether you want to create websites with Adobe Dreamweaver or logos and illustrations with Adobe Illustrator, courses as short as one week could get you on the right path to becoming a full-fledged professional somewhere down the line.

It is never too late to start some type of further education. Gather information on your program, study hard, and reach for the stars!

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Dec21

Why Is My Dog Aggressive?

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Why Is My Dog Aggressive?

If you have ever seen yours or another dog show aggressive behavior, it might be a little scary to witness and can be even more challenging to manage. Of course, when you have a family and children, the presence of an aggressive animal can be a big risk. However, before you take your dog away and put them up for adoption, it is important to understand their behavior and see if there is any way to manage it.

The first thing you will want to know is the cause of your dog’s aggressive behavior. From the outside, people usually assume that it is the owner’s fault or the dog is simply out of control, but when you start to explore deeper, you will see that everything is not as black and white as it seems:

Hormones: Like all other animals, dogs have hormones which change at certain times of the year, or according to certain stimulus. For example, when it comes to female dogs, they come on heat a few times each year. This means that they are at optimum time for mating and to give birth to pups. The issue with a female being on heat is that male dogs will be able to smell the pheromones she gives off, and this can make your male dog more aggressive for a short period as his testosterone levels spike. This is, of course, not an issue if your dog has been neutered, but if it hasn’t this is something to look out for.

Illness: When your dog is ill, it can cause them to become aggressive. There are a few different illnesses which can cause your dog to display aggressive behavior. Even the most friendly dog in the world can become aggressive when they are unwell or are in severe pain. Conditions such as a brain tumor, joint pain, and thyroid disease can be common causes of aggression in your pet. If you have a dog that suddenly shows signs of aggression such as growling, biting, or snarling you will need to get them checked out as they could be ill.

Fear: You may have heard of the concept of fight or flight; this concept applies to every living thing and is an innate action. When presented with a situation which is scary, you can either run away or stay and fight that fear until you beat it. Some dogs will cower away from other dogs, buses, or scary objects, but some dogs will stay and fight. If your animal is faced with a situation where they feel either trapped or afraid, they will lash out in self defense. This becomes a big issue if they bite somebody, because you may end up with a dog bite lawyer on your case.

Possession Aggression: There are a few instances where your dog may become possessive over its food, toys, or something else. It is mostly down to a dog’s personality. Some dogs don’t care if you sit next to them as they eat, whereas others will snap at you because they think you are going to steal it. Knowing your dog and taking precautions to stay away from them when they have food is the only way to deal with it.

You may also have the occurrence of your animal suddenly displaying possessive behavior when they have never done before. In this case you will want to take them to the vets because it could be if your dog is a young female, that they are suffering a phantom pregnancy. The toys your dog is being possessive over are actually her babies in her mind, which is why she is aggressive. This is nothing to worry about and will pass within a few weeks, however it is worth keeping toys away from her in this time.

Establishing Dominance: If you have more than one dog, you might notice them fighting each other every now and again. If this occurs frequently and the fighting starts becoming more aggressive it is most likely because they are fighting for dominance. All members of the canine family have a strict hierarchy which they live their lives by. There will always be an alpha male and alpha female. You will be able to tell which is which by the behavior they display as they eat and walk about.

An alpha male will always take their time with their food, whereas the lower ranks will wolf it down (pardon the pun) as quickly as they can. This is because alpha dogs have priority over food, so if they finish and another pack member still has food left, they can take it. The lower ranks will eat quickly so that they do not lose out on their food. Your dog may also display this behavior to you if they feel that their dominance is being challenged. If your dog barks as you try to move them off of the furniture or take them outside, this is a sign that they are asserting their dominance to you.

What to do: When your dog is displaying aggressive behavior, you may need help identifying the cause and helping them calm down. To do this you can do the following:

Call in a Professional: Call the vet and book an appointment to see if they are ill. If not, then you will need to look at contacting a dog behaviorist. Don’t try to fix the situation on your own because you could make matters worse and end up hurt. A professional will be able to see what’s happening with your pet and advise you on the way you should behave towards them to calm them down. Their advice could range from additional training like obedience school to CBD drops for dogs to help soothe them. A trip to the vet is the best first step you can take if your dog is displaying aggression.

Avoid Situations That Aggravate Your Dog: If your dog hates buses or they don’t like other dogs, avoid these situations where they are put in front of them. If the behavior still continues you may need to use desensitization to teach the dog that these things are not scary and that other dogs are good to be around.

Be Patient & Positive: Don’t shout at your dog. It is the worst thing that you can do because they do not understand why you are shouting. In their mind, their aggression is for a reason, so they will not respond well to you punishing them for it. Instead, keep things positive, praise your dog for good behavior, and try to work through things in a positive way.

Featured Image By: Flickr

Dec20

Looking After Ageing Parents: Day Care VS Companionship

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Looking After Ageing Parents: Day Care VS Companionship

If you’re in the position where you are having to face the daunting reality of looking after your ageing parents, it’s understandable that you might feel like you have the weight of the whole world on your shoulders; not only do you have to manage your own work/life balance, in addition to taking care of your family, you now face increasing pressure to take care of your parent or parents.

Indeed, taking care of elderly parents can be a real struggle; Not only must you find a solution that tends to their medical, physiological, and practical needs but also their social and emotional needs, as well. One would imagine, at this juncture, that all you want to do is take care of your loved ones in their old age, but there’s a limit to how you can protect them from the inevitable pitfalls of ageing. You’ve weighed up the pros and cons of trying to care for them yourself. You’ve been through a thousand Care.com reviews to check if they’d be a good fit for some in-home care. You’re trying to explore every single option you can find to make sure your parents have the support they need. But it can be a losing game. No matter how hard you try, you’re unlikely to be able to take care of the full gamut of your parents needs – but there is an area, that is often overlooked that you can play a vital role in.

This area is that of tending to their emotional and social needs. One of the core problems elderly people face is loneliness – this sense of loneliness can be much more debilitating than any of their physical ailments and it’s totally avoidable. Again, you’re unlikely to be in the position to be a full-time companion, and it’s important that you don’t give yourself a hard time for this… as there are ways of caring for their social needs without you needing to be at their beckon call. This article explores three options that you have available to lighten the load:

Paid Companionship:

It might feel like a strange notion to have to pay someone to offer companionship, but given the level of patience and the complexity of your own emotional experience in looking after an elderly patient; an external companion can provide great relief for both you and your parent. You should check out services like the senior companion program that use senior companions to provide genuine companionship from a place of authentic like-mindedness, people who are truly able to relate with their companion as a peer; rather than a disinterested person intending to make ‘easy’ income.

The important thing when searching for a companion, therefore, is a genuine connection that leads to natural rapport. There are plenty of elderly people that wouldn’t fancy the idea of having a companion, in this way, out of pride or perhaps fear that they don’t want the awkwardness of having to interact with someone they don’t really know or trust; therefore it’s of critical importance you find someone that can relate on their level – and the natural choice would be a similarly aged peer.

Daycare:

There are many daycare options available, where people get to interact with their peers, however something to be mindful of is that just because someone is elderly doesn’t mean that they want to be put on a coach and force fed bingo sessions. It’s important you find a daycare center that is aligned with your parent(s) interests and natural character.

Assisted Living:

Should your loved one need more care than regular pop ins from you or a daycare, you might want to consider assisted living. These spaces are often specific for people who need memory care or have difficulty completing daily household tasks safely. To ensure your parent is receiving the best quality senior care, schedule tours at several different locations. Pay close attention to how the staff behaves and if the residents seem happy and as healthy as they can be. Do be sure to try and visit as frequently as you can to verify that your parents’ needs are being tended to in a loving and timely manner.

In summary, you really want to find something suitable for your parents that naturally aligns with their character. Most people value developing a deep and meaningful friendship with a person rather than several superficial acquaintances; but both options lend themselves to this. The most important thing to remember is that it’s your parent who should be deciding how they spend their time and one of the greatest gifts you can offer is your patience, understanding, and flexibility in meeting their needs rather than your own.

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