Do you have a hard time saying, “no”? Many, many people do - especially women. We may be afraid to disappoint people, but the problem usually lies in our expectations of ourselves. When is good enough, good enough? Keeping our sanity when feeling squeezed involves learning to accept less from ourselves and this means saying, “no.” Michelle Woodbrey, Alyson Powers and Kristine Callahan discuss learning to discern between our own expectations and those of other people. Spoiler alert: saying “no,” ...
Aug 02, 2022•27 min•Ep. 21
Creative solutions are often necessary when creating a plan of care for a parent, especially when someone can no longer live alone. Many families look to share the responsibilities, but is moving your loved one between the homes of siblings a good idea? A listener wrote to us and asked us to talk about whether it is a good idea to move her mom between the homes of her and her siblings every few months. Her mom is no longer safe and needs someone to live with her. They feel guilty putting the res...
Jul 19, 2022•17 min•Ep. 20
Cathie Briggette is the Co-Founder of Herself360 , an online women’s magazine designed to create a platform for women to feel more connected. Herself360 started out of a need for women to have a stronger village to be able to support one another. Cathie has been a client of 2Sisters Senior Living Advisors as well. She and her siblings have forged their own little village in support of their mother, who has late-stage Alzheimer’s. She is kind enough to share some of her story with us and how her ...
Jul 05, 2022•21 min•Ep. 19
Planning documents are for everyone and this is a good place to start the conversation. We should all have these few critical documents in place in the event something happens and we can’t make decisions for ourselves. These include: Health Care Proxy Power of attorney Living Will Regardless of age, unfortunate circumstances can happen to anyone and being prepared only serves to lessen the impact should those planning tools be needed. Here are some additional resources to help you through these ...
Jun 21, 2022•21 min•Ep. 18
What can people do to advocate for themselves at work? Meghan Steinberg emphasizes the importance of prioritizing ourselves. She became a caregiver when her husband had an accident that resulted in a traumatic brain injury a few years ago. She was just 2 years into starting her business, SteinbergHR, and her son was only 3 years old at the time. SteinbergHR is a boutique HR firm providing full-service human resource consulting, outsourcing and solutions. Their capabilities are utilized on an as-...
Jun 07, 2022•21 min•Ep. 17
It is not a great idea to ask directions of someone who has never been where you are going. This is a mistake many people make soliciting recommendations for senior care options. When we ask friends and neighbors or crowdsource on social media, we get a bunch of well-intentioned advice that may, or may not, be helpful based on our unique situation. So how do we know which advice to listen to? Michelle, Alyson, and Kristine discuss advice. Isn’t it awesome (seriously, not awesome) when someone te...
May 24, 2022•13 min•Ep. 16
This podcast, like almost everything else for us, is an experiential learning process. We are learning by doing. One thing we have learned so far is that releasing a podcast episode every other week is a better fit for our schedules. As adult children raising our own children and running a business, we practice two things that are relevant to this decision. One is to constantly be evaluating our priorities. While we are loving getting the podcast going, it is not our first priority when put into...
May 17, 2022•1 min
At some point everybody stops driving, but how it happens is different in every story. Michelle and Alyson reveal their currently evolving story of getting their father, who has Parkinson’s disease, to stop driving. Kristine also tells us about what it took to get her mom to stop driving. We discuss some practical approaches and offer resources which may (or may not) be helpful in getting your loved one to give up the keys. Here are some links to what we reference in this episode: https://www.pa...
May 10, 2022•25 min•Ep. 14
Emily is contemplating daycare for Penny, but she is struggling with the idea of giving care for her daughter over to strangers. There are parallels between the design of a daycare and the benefits of that environment for the development of a growing child and the design of a memory care environment for the support and independence of someone with dementia. Here’s a link to an article we wrote, "The Four Benefits to Memory Care." Their world becomes more manageable Increased social interaction c...
May 03, 2022•24 min•Ep. 13
Having your ducks in a row in the event a loved one needs to go to the hospital unexpectedly can make a huge difference in everyone’s stress level. What are the things they may need? What are the things you may need? Some things are naturally personal preference, but other things are necessities. Here are our suggestions for what to have ready if your loved one needs to go to the hospital unexpectedly. Be prepared to be able to provide at least the basic information medical professionals will ne...
Apr 26, 2022•24 min
A helicopter parent is a parent who pays extremely close attention to a child's or children's experiences and problems, particularly at educational institutions. Helicopter parents are so named because, like helicopters, they "hover overhead," overseeing every aspect of their child's life constantly. Michelle, Alyson, Emily and Kristine discuss the concept of acceptable or negotiated risk. The balance between trying to keep our loved ones safe from their own poor choices and keeping our sanity i...
Apr 19, 2022•20 min•Ep. 11
People in search of care options for an aging loved one need to become familiar with things they probably never wanted to. We have callers who are commonly confused and need clarification. For example, what does insurance cover regarding senior care? Panel of experts: Michelle Woodbrey Certified Senior Advisor (CSA)® Certified Placement & Referral Specialist (CPRS) Certified Dementia Practitioner (CDP)® REALTOR® Alyson Powers Certified Senior Advisor (CSA)® Certified Placement & Referral...
Apr 12, 2022•29 min•Ep. 10
During this episode, Alyson is away travelling with family so Michelle and Emily have a discussion reminiscing about how Emily started working for 2Sisters Senior Living Advisors. When is it time to give up on something that you’ve spent so much time working toward? Emily worked hard for many years to actualize her dream of becoming a Nursing Home Administrator only to realize it was not her dream anymore. She also currently has a client who is resistant to giving up caring for her father becaus...
Apr 05, 2022•19 min•Ep. 9
How do we help our parents when they fear intervention? How bad does it have to get? Joined by Alyson, Emily and Kristine in this episode, Michelle tells us about her daughter waiting to tell her about a cavity until it was a crevASSe the size of the Grand Canyon. Similarly, we see this with our aging loved ones who can minimize situations or withhold information out of fear of change. Join us as we talk through strategy in having these types hard conversations with our aging loved ones. Kristin...
Mar 29, 2022•22 min•Ep. 8
We take on a case study about wandering and dementia. Michelle and Alyson, joined by Emily and Kristine, present options for someone whose mother had a scary wandering event. Resources mentioned in the episode: Alzheimer's Association https://www.alz.org/ Please click the button to subscribe so you don't miss any episodes and leave a review if your favorite podcast app has that ability. Thank you! More information at https://2sisters-sla.com/ © 2022 Michelle Woodbrey and Alyson Powers...
Mar 22, 2022•25 min•Ep. 7
“Unspoken Expectations are premeditated resentments.” – Neil Strauss In this episode, Michelle and Alyson are joined by Emily and Kristine. Who feels guilty? Do you? We do, and we even listen to Kristine when she tells us that guilt is a useless emotion. How do we set the right expectations with our loved ones so that we don’t live in a world of guilt? Please click the button to subscribe so you don't miss any episodes and leave a review if your favorite podcast app has that ability. Thank you! ...
Mar 15, 2022•21 min•Ep. 6
How in the world do you find time for yourself? Baby weight, the freshmen 15, and pandemic pounds are “socially acceptable” reasons for carrying extra weight, but what about caregivers like us? What about aging parent pounds? Kristine shares techniques on how to take some time for ourselves. She had us drooling over her description of her morning rituals. While many of us can’t fathom having a self-care morning ritual, we can begin to incorporate being kinder to ourselves in small ways. Resource...
Mar 08, 2022•21 min•Ep. 5
When your plans fall through what are you going to do? Our plow company didn’t show up after the recent 29 inches of snow. We were unprepared. This isn’t unlike the calls we get when a home care agency can’t fill a shift. In this episode, Michelle, Alyson, Kristine and Emily discuss levels of planning and why, when you have 29 inches of snow, is not the time you want to be looking for a shovel. Please click the button to subscribe so you don't miss any episodes and leave a review if your favorit...
Mar 01, 2022•26 min•Ep. 4
What is revenge procrastination insomnia and how did it lead to this podcast? We stay up way too late spending time procrastinating on going to bed, sucked in by social media and binge-watching TV. We noticed groups all over social media platforms offering support for adults who are struggling to care for their aging loved ones. But people are still searching for more. Alyson and I felt called to start this podcast. Today we discuss how we grew up going to work with our parents in nursing homes ...
Feb 22, 2022•18 min•Ep. 3
Something’s got to give, but how do we know what? And when? The line between our personal lives and our professional lives is blurrier than ever with so many of us working from home these days. It’s a new level of multitasking and, sometimes, when we hit a groove, it can feel like we’re managing it all ok. But… “The hunter that chases two rabbits, catches neither.” – Confucius Are we actually effective when we are multitasking or are we fooling ourselves? How do we know when it is time to quit a...
Feb 22, 2022•18 min•Ep. 2
The 2Sisters, Michelle and Alyson, discuss which battles are worth the fight. Emily’s daughter is starting to eat solid food and won’t eat peas or any vegetables, naturally she is concerned. Our client’s father lives in a memory care neighborhood, and she keeps finding him wearing other people’s pants. What is the connection? Please click the button to subscribe so you don't miss any episodes and leave a review if your favorite podcast app has that ability. Thank you! More information at https:/...
Feb 22, 2022•19 min•Ep. 1
2Sisters Speak: Surviving the Sandwich Generation is a podcast for anyone who feels sandwiched caring for an aging loved one and is in search of community that understands the unique challenges of being squeezed. Hosted by sisters, Michelle Woodbrey and Alyson Powers, co-owners of 2Sisters Senior Living Advisors, a senior care consulting firm. Michelle and Alyson have been supporting seniors and their families for decades and are now also caring for their own aging parents and raising young fami...
Dec 30, 2021•2 min
