FROM THE EDITOR'S PEN / More
Words on Words
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Who could imagine before the
mid-nineties that the word “SPAM” could conjure
up clogged email in-boxes as opposed to a
breakfast meat delicacy in the Philippines?
(I love the Spam Jam Café in Makati
City’s Greenbelt Mall.)
Or that WRITING IN ALL CAPS would be
considered RUDE?
Or even that “friend” would become a verb
as in “to friend” a person on Facebook?
I believe that we are in the same place
with family caregiving that the Internet was in
not so long ago—in need of language rules.
And seeing your responses to
last week’s newsletter, many of you feel the
same way.
I
am the first to admit that the word “caregiver”
is challenging since it has so many meanings:
a nurse’s aide or CNA, a family member, a
parent or even a physician. Although my good
friend Vicki Williams, Director of the
Area Agency on Aging and Independent Living Purchase Area Development District
in Kentucky (I am in fact, an official
Duke of Paducah),
still prefers it to the word “caretaker.”
As she states in her email:
I
think we should not use the term “caretaker”
even though we may “take care” of our loved
ones.
I prefer “caregiver” because they “give”
(and give and give more) the care needed by
their loved ones.
The term caretaker seems 1) negative, as
in they “take” something and 2) the same term is
used for people who tend lawns/provide
maintenance.
Point well
taken, Vicki.
Share Your
Caregiving Language Pet Peeves
