My daughter has just recently become a single mother ..and she is very overwhelmed by it ..she has a beautiful little three year old boy who goes to childcare ...my daughter just this year has been diagnosed with fnd and everything is a struggle ..I live around a hour away from her and I'm struggling myself because I feel the guilt but have to work and pay my bills and can't be there all the time for her as I have my own responsibilities...I'm not in a position where she can come and live with me either ...I just don't know how to help .. what can I do ??
5 Replies
Why isn’t she able to come and live with you? She could sleep in the lounge room or what ever it takes. Can she buy a caravan and park it at your house? Are you able to go and stay there and looking after her son now and then when you aren’t working.? If none of this is possible just bear there and listen to her. Check on her daily and see how she is going and support her. I think you should be closer together in distance. It would help a lot.
An hour isn’t that far. I live about 50 mins from my mum and when I became a single mum to two kids, the youngest was 6 months. My support network which included my mum and friends was everything. Can you stay over a few nights a week and drive to work from her place? Night times are always the hardest and I’m sure she would appreciate having someone there
If you could have her live with you you could help her and she could help with the bills. Otherwise just make the time, if she's not getting a break from her child offer to have him overnight sometimes, clean, cook. If you try and remember back when your kids were little and what kind of help you would have appreciated or did appreciate then that will be the same help she would be grateful for too.
Is dad in a position to raise the daughter? sounds like long term that would be the best option if Mum is unwell and not coping. She needs to get support from counselling, my guess is the health diagnosis was the last straw for her marriage, so she need to get mentally strong to be able to face in to her physical challenges that are ahead. You can do some things, maybe on the weekend take the grand child for a night, cook dinners and drop them off, go to a drs appointment and find out what is available to her with this diagnosis. You don't have to be a full time carer to be able to help.
Long term something will need to be done. Can you build a granny flat or residential shed in your backyard. Even look at converting a garage into something for her. It doesn’t sound like she should really be living alone. Like others have said def try the ndis.