Mostly, now I seem to be coping all right with Dad's behaviour, but the one thing I'm not doing well with is his constant questions.
I know he's after reassurance, but when he's asked me the same thing ten times in the space of an hour I feel like I'm going to explode.
He has been showing signs of sundowning. Largely I've managed to keep this under control by sticking to a strict routine and telling him he's mustn't get out of bed until he hears me get up. It's difficult for me as I have insomnia and become unwell if I don't myself regulate my sleeping pattern. He has a couple of times got up at night, but has gone back to bed when I tell him to.
Anyway, it's made more complicated by the fact he doesn't really understand time any more. Some days he doesn't want to go to bed at all. Other times he's demanding to go to bed from the minute I get home from work. I say "No, not yet, your bed time is at such a time, after which I usually have to explain what time it is now, how long he has to wait, what the arms on the clock mean. He says okay. Five minutes later he starts again. We go through the routine again. Everything settles down. Five minutes later...
He can become very difficult, taking my refusal to let him go as some kind of plot or insult. In his mind it's the middle of the night and I'm making him do something unnatural and I find it very hard to keep civil with him.
This is one of the hardest things to deal with, but there are constant questions from him all the time, about what I'm doing, about what he should do, about household tasks, about if I'm going to feed him, and at times my patience just goes out of the window. It's worst of all when I try to go to another part of the house for a breather and he follows me. I just want to lose it altogether.
Does anyone have any tactics for this sort of behaviour? I can only answer the same question so many times, he just doesn't have a clue what he's doing.
I know he's after reassurance, but when he's asked me the same thing ten times in the space of an hour I feel like I'm going to explode.
He has been showing signs of sundowning. Largely I've managed to keep this under control by sticking to a strict routine and telling him he's mustn't get out of bed until he hears me get up. It's difficult for me as I have insomnia and become unwell if I don't myself regulate my sleeping pattern. He has a couple of times got up at night, but has gone back to bed when I tell him to.
Anyway, it's made more complicated by the fact he doesn't really understand time any more. Some days he doesn't want to go to bed at all. Other times he's demanding to go to bed from the minute I get home from work. I say "No, not yet, your bed time is at such a time, after which I usually have to explain what time it is now, how long he has to wait, what the arms on the clock mean. He says okay. Five minutes later he starts again. We go through the routine again. Everything settles down. Five minutes later...
He can become very difficult, taking my refusal to let him go as some kind of plot or insult. In his mind it's the middle of the night and I'm making him do something unnatural and I find it very hard to keep civil with him.
This is one of the hardest things to deal with, but there are constant questions from him all the time, about what I'm doing, about what he should do, about household tasks, about if I'm going to feed him, and at times my patience just goes out of the window. It's worst of all when I try to go to another part of the house for a breather and he follows me. I just want to lose it altogether.
Does anyone have any tactics for this sort of behaviour? I can only answer the same question so many times, he just doesn't have a clue what he's doing.