Supporting Your Children Through Your Arthritis Diagnosis
An arthritis diagnosis can be particularly difficult if you still have a family to take care of and support. While it is possible to still take care of yourself, your children and your spouse, some things will have to change in order to remain manageable. In particular, life for your children may be different; it is important that you talk to them about the situation but it can be hard to know what to do or what to say. The following tips will help figure out how to talk to them and what to do in the coming weeks and months.
Communicate honestly with your children. While you do need to make sure that you speak to them on their level, it is important that they know what you are dealing with. Simply keeping things to yourself is not the answer; children will intuitively know that something is different about you and it will make them worry. Tell them that there will be days that you are in pain and you will need a little help. Make sure they understand that you will have to go to the doctor, but not because things are getting worse; your visits are to help make sure that you stay healthy. If they ask questions, answer them as honestly and appropriately as you can.
Be creative when it comes to playing with your kids. They will almost certainly enjoy rolling around on the floor and laying on their stomachs to build blocks or play with their action figures. It will be very hard on your body to get up and down often, and you may aggravate your condition in the process. Come up with a way to play on the couch or on the bed. If your child needs a hard surface to put their blocks or other toys on, try using a serving try or a baking sheet. Remember that you can still have fun together, although playtime may look differently than it did before.
Especially if you have young children, buy clothes with zippers rather than buttons. It will be difficult, and possibly painful, for you to try and snap up an outfit on your child. Seek out clothing that goes on and off easily so that you don't have to struggle with it. If your child is older, let him or her decide but make sure they can manipulate the clothing before you purchase it.
Seek out different family activities to do as a group. Again, you may not be able to participate in family time the way that you did before. However, that doesn't mean that you can't come up with new, creative and fun ways to spend time with your children and spouse. If playing soccer in the yard is too challenging for you, take a trip to the pool instead. If you aren't up for playing with playdoh, have story time. It may take some time to come up with new routines, but you can do it!
Living with arthritis may be challenging, but you can still have a life filled with joy and fun. Take the advice from this information to heart and help your children adjust to your situation.
