What do you do when your parent gets sick and your kids still need dinner on the table?You are raising children while supporting a parent through illness, decline, or a medical change you did not see coming. Most days you are not sure you are doing either job well. Some call it the sandwich generation. From the inside, it feels more like being pulled in two directions at once.The guilt arrives before the coffee. The grief shows up before anyone has died. And the people who love you keep asking if you are okay when you do not have the language yet to answer.Joni A. Lamb, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker with more than twenty years of experience, including a decade at one of the country's top pediatric hospitals. Her own father's cancer diagnosis arrived during the same phone call as her pregnancy announcement. What she learned on both sides, as a clinician and as a daughter, is in this book.Inside, you will find simple tools you will actually remember, like the Emotional Pitcher Method for noticing when you are running on empty and the Container Method for setting worry aside long enough to get through the day.You will find age-by-age guidance for talking with your kids about what is happening to their grandparent, from toddlers to young adults.You will find help with the practical side too: medical appointments, medication tracking, family meetings, work and family leave, and the planning conversations most families put off.And you will find honest writing about anticipatory grief, guilt, and what comes after, from someone who has been there.If you are stretched thin and feeling inadequate everywhere, this book is for you.
