Over the weekend, we hosted a Christmas party with my mom, my siblings, and our families. We also attended a Christmas party with my mom’s extended family. There has been no hiding that my mom’s dementia is getting worse. She no longer recognized her brother-in-law, someone she knew since she was a teenager.

After the first Christmas party, my siblings and I had a meeting to discuss the current situation of our parents. Then we spoke to our parents about some of the things we discussed. I was very stressed out before the meeting. Thankfully my brothers and I are in agreement about how things should be handled. The biggest problem is that our parents are not in agreement with us.

My parents should not be driving. I’ve received several calls about my mom’s driving. She got into a car accident this year causing an injury to another person. Her friend told me she pulled out in front of someone without looking first and her friend came close to being killed. She also drove across her friend’s lawn and face planted her car into the ditch instead of using the driveway. When my brother asked her about her driving, she told us that she was a good driver. My dad can barely walk and doesn’t see well. They refused to stop driving or look into options such as assisted living.

The only thing they said they were willing to do was give me guardianship of my disabled brother Matt. Honestly, I don’t really want to do it. But I don’t feel like I have much of a choice. I told my brothers I was not going to baby Matt or give him special treatment which he is used to receiving from our mother.

I can’t stand even being at my parents house because the level of dysfunction and chaos is almost more than I can handle.

It’s hard not having any sense of control and just stand by waiting for something bad to happen before any changes are made. But I’ve been through this before recently when my daughter started developing a serious mental illness. When someone is an adult, it’s nearly impossible to intervene on their behalf if they don’t want your help.

Despite the stressful meeting, the holiday parties went really well. Everyone was for the most part nice and respectful. With the exception of a couple days, I’ve been in good spirits. I joked around and laughed a lot with my family when others around seemed to be rather down with all the bad news. Maybe it’s because I don’t care as much anymore about the things I can’t control, which is freeing. Maybe I’ve gotten used to living with suffering all around me and I’ve become desensitized. Or maybe it’s because I’m medicated. Life is just too short to take seriously all the time.