Meals, Medicines & Mild Meltdowns

Caring for someone you love can be tender, meaningful, exhausting, frustrating - and sometimes all of those things before lunchtime.

Meals, Medicines & Mild Meltdowns is a warm, practical companion for family carers supporting an ageing, seriously ill or dependent loved one.

Written from lived experience, this book is for the daughter, son, partner, sibling or friend who suddenly finds themselves managing meals, medicines, appointments, laundry, bedding, household jobs, family communication, changing care needs - and their own emotions at the same time.

With gentle humour, realistic shortcuts and reassuring reminders, Donna Attard shares simple ways to make everyday caring feel a little more manageable.

Inside you'll find practical support for:

• simplifying meals, laundry, bedding and daily routines
• managing medicines, appointments and carer brain
• recognising when care needs are changing
• asking for help and dealing with family dynamics
• setting boundaries without losing compassion
• coping with frustration, guilt, resentment and exhaustion
• making room for rest, connection and a life beyond caring
• navigating the tender emotional changes that can come with ageing, serious illness and end-of-life care

You'll also meet Patsy the Possum - a soft-hearted, slightly frazzled companion who appears throughout the book with practical reminders, permission slips, small comforts and the occasional piece of possum wisdom.

This is not a book about becoming the perfect carer.

It is about making caring more manageable.

About lowering the bar when it needs lowering.

About accepting that frozen meals, unfolded washing, imperfect days and cups of tea can all have a place in good care.

And about remembering that the person doing the caring matters too.

If you have ever found yourself standing in the kitchen wondering what to cook, checking a medication packet for the third time, changing another set of sheets or quietly thinking, I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this - this book was written for you.

From one slightly frazzled family carer to another.