Recovering from an injury can be difficult, but it is ten times harder when you have many responsibilities at home to take care of. Being a parent is tough enough as it is, and if you’ve had the misfortune of getting injured, managing the household can often feel impossible.
So how do you keep your house from burning down while making sure you don’t strain yourself? Here are some tips that can help:
Get the legal stuff out of the way
If your injury was caused by the fault of another person, you should take care of the legal matters right away so that you can focus on recovery as soon as possible. Work with your spinal cord injury lawyer, personal injury lawyer, or whoever is responsible for your case, and ensure that you give them everything that they need for the case.
Know your limit
Ask your doctor or physical therapist about what you can and cannot do while recovering from your injury. Depending on your injury’s type and severity, you will have physical limitations for a certain amount of time. And as a parent, you cannot do as much as you could before getting injured.
Knowing your limits is crucial to avoid straining yourself and possibly making your injury worse (which also lengthens your recovery time). Once you find out what you can and cannot do physically, respect these limits as much as possible for your own sake, as well as for your family.
Ask for help
When you’re recovering from an injury, you most likely won’t be able to do much around the house except maybe for light tasks. But when you have kids relying on you for daily meals and household chores to do every day, not to mention important errands to run, sitting around all day is not an option.
This is the time when you should ask for help, be it from your spouse, family members, friends, colleagues, or neighbors. Ask your parents to watch over the kids for a while. Tag along with your neighbor to run errands so that you don’t have to drive. Call your friend and ask them if they can grocery shop for you. Whatever the case is, don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it.
Get plenty of rest
Getting adequate rest is one of the best ways to recover from an injury, so take the opportunity to rest your body whenever you can. If your kids are not letting you rest properly, ask a family member to help or, better yet, hire a babysitter who can take your kids off of your hands for a while.
Help your kids understand
If your kids are not old enough to understand your injury yet, explain it to them in a way that they can easily grasp. In this way, they know why mommy or daddy can’t play with them as much, or why they can’t go to the mall this weekend and instead have to stay at home. They might have questions about your injury and how you got it, so be prepared to answer them in age-appropriate ways.
Let your kids help
Kids love to help their parents, especially when they see that you’re having a hard time. So chances are, your kids will be eager to help you with simple tasks such as getting something from the fridge, putting your plate away, or setting the table. Let them help out, even if it means that the task is going to be done slower. Besides being good training for them, it’s also a great way to stay on your feet.
Put off less important tasks or events
Try to take off the less important tasks from your to-do list for now. If they don’t need to be done immediately, reschedule them for after you’re feeling better. The same goes for upcoming events that you can afford to miss. If it’s not that important to you, it’s better to stay at home than risk straining yourself wherever it is you’re going to.
Putting off some things on your schedule also gives you more time at home, which can be spent with your family doing the things you enjoy. Instead of going to a concert you’ve been meaning to go to, order takeout and have a movie night with your kids instead.
With these tips, you can not only recover from your injury easier, but you will also be able to keep your household running as normally as possible. Although things won’t be as they were for quite some time, these strategies can help you recover faster so that you can go back to normal sooner.
