How to Maintain a Family Routine with a Seriously Ill Child

Maintaining a family routine is at best, challenging; but when there is a seriously ill child involved, that challenge becomes twice as hard, and twice as important. If there is a single thing that can be done to help your family maintain a routine with a seriously ill child, it could only be the use of time management. It is one of the most important things that you can do to help the situation. These are some of the tips that my husband and I used when our son was diagnosed with a serious illness. I know they will help you out, as much as they did us.

1. Have and maintain 2 cars. With a seriously ill child there will be a lot of doctor's appointments and therapy appointments. A bad situation can be made even worse when you have to start playing 'shuffle the car.'

2. Have a family meeting, discuss the situation and how some things around the house must change; such as household duties and chores. Help the children of the family understand that, since more of the parents time will be taken up with the care of the seriously ill child, you will be depending upon them more for assistance.

3. Get all members of the family a planner. Even though there will be a lot of appoints for the seriously ill child, you don't want your other children to miss out on important things, such as sports or club meetings. A planner will help everyone in the family keep track of priorities.

4. Hold a family meeting weekly, not only will things change from week to week. It will help the family schedule around the really important appointments.

5. Try not to fill up every time slot of the day, with something to do. You need to allow yourself some time to rest during the day; if at all possible.

6. Have a to-do list. Each week when you have your family meeting you will be able to see what is being done. Then you can make adjustments where they are needed.

7. Have a color code. When you have your family meeting, and things are added to the week's schedule; color code it. Have top priority (we used red), mid-level priority (pink), and yellow was low-level priority. When we had to make adjustments to our weekly schedule, we started with those in yellow first.

8. Try to fit in some family enjoyment and relaxation time at least once a week if you can. There were times that we couldn't leave the house because our son was too sick, so we would order pizza and rent a movie.

9. On a daily basis, focus on the important things. You are not going to always be able to get everything done. Just do what can be done, starting with the most important things.

10. When it is necessary; ask for help. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins want to help, but aren't sure what to do, or they don't want to intrude. Ask for their help if necessary.

Any one of these strategies will help in effectively maintaining a family routine and schedule, the key is time-management.