A daily checklist for caring for a parent

Most caregiving is not hard, it is just endless — and the worry is usually not that you cannot do it, but that you have forgotten something. This is one page of the things worth casting an eye over. Print it, put it somewhere you pass daily, and let it hold the list instead of your head.

One sheet covers a week: tick the day. Nothing here needs doing in order, and not every line matters every day. It is a prompt, not an exam paper.

or press Ctrl+P — ⌘P on a Mac.

Daily checklist for

Week beginning

Morning

	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
Up, dressed, and moving about
Morning medication taken
Breakfast eaten — not just tea
Hearing aid in, glasses on, batteries working

Through the day

	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
Something to drink every few hours
A proper meal at midday
Midday medication, if there is one
Out of the chair — a walk, the garden, the stairs
Spoke to somebody other than you

Evening

	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
Evening meal eaten
Evening medication taken
Doors locked, heating set
Anything needed in the night within reach

Worth a look once a week

Enough medication left — reorder before it runs low, not after
Appointments coming up, and who is taking them
Food in date; anything gone off in the fridge
Post opened, bills paid
Phone and any medical devices charged
Nothing new to trip over — rugs, wires, boxes on the stairs
Washing done; enough clean clothes

How they seem

The part no list can tick for you. Worth writing down when something is different, because a pattern is far easier to see on paper than to remember across three weeks.

Date	Something that seemed different

There is also a printable daily routine sheet for medication times and contacts, if the routine itself is what needs writing down.

If keeping the day on track turns into its own job, Remindly speaks reminders aloud at your parent's end and tells you what was done and what was missed — so the checking does not have to be another phone call. It is free.