What's the word for what we do?
When I use the word 'caregiving' people think they know what I mean, but so often whatever they're imagining is totally different from what I'm talking about.
They imagine caregiving is only something performed by home health aides.
They think caregivers are saintly old ladies, eager martyrs to their family.
They're not the caregiver, the real caregiver is their mom or their grandma (and mom says 'oh no, I'm not a caregiver, I'm just a wife.')
I'm not going to foist labels on people, but I can't help but thinking this is why caregiving is left out of so many important discussions. When politicians and other decision makers talk about healthcare they talk about the patients, they forget about the people supporting them along the way.
PS. Speaking of living a life that's ungoogleable, I have a curated selection of articles about caregiving (that may or may not ever use that word) on our website. Scroll down to filter them by category or search for whatever you want.