Caring for adults is NOT like caring for children.

It's unfair to the caregiver and the elder.

So often we equate caring for older adults like caring for children and that is unfair to you as a caregiver and also to the older adult because caring for older adults is so fundamentally different than caring for children. 

For children... you just pick them up and move them, you can give and set limits and they grow out of it. There's a lot of hope. With raising a life. When we care for our aging parent who are declining elders becoming incontinent, its a harbinger of loss. Its not the same thing and the emotional weight of that dynamic is very different. 

Its easier to find care for children. 

Its easier to find a circle of support for children. 

Its easier to talk about caring for a child than it is for an aging individual. 

There's more familiarity. 

When we equate caring for older adults like caring for children it undermines you the caregiver, the care recipient and your relationship. They're part of the fabric of who you are. My mom could never be my child. She was always my mommy.