I'm raising young kids while losing my dad to Alzheimer's

June 21, 2026 - 01:41

For most parents, the chaos of raising young children is a full-time emotional and physical marathon. But for one woman, that marathon is being run on a shifting, crumbling road. She is raising two toddlers, expecting a third child, and simultaneously watching her father disappear into the fog of Alzheimer's disease.

The experience is a brutal collision of life cycles. In one room, there are sippy cups, bedtime stories, and the sticky joy of a toddler's hug. In another, there is a man who once taught her to ride a bike, now struggling to remember her name. She describes it as living in two separate realities that refuse to merge. The demands of a newborn and a preschooler are relentless, requiring every ounce of patience and energy. Yet, the grief of losing her father by inches is a constant, quiet weight that never lifts.

She finds herself explaining death to a three-year-old while also trying to process the slow, living loss of her dad. The hardest moments come when her father looks at her with polite confusion, as if she is a kind stranger. She has to remind herself that the man who built her childhood is still there, somewhere, even if his mind is a locked room.

This is not a story of heroism, but of survival. She has learned to accept help, to cry in the shower, and to treasure the rare, lucid moments when her father smiles at his grandchildren. She is raising her kids to be gentle with their grandfather, even when he doesn't know who they are. It is a heartbreak that comes in waves, but she keeps swimming, because the little ones on her shoulders cannot be dropped.