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Hi Christina In message <m0vJ2Lp-000A8eC@zeus> PARKINSN@ listserv.utoronto.ca writes: > I would like to say how I feel about the word caregiver. I brought this > subject up a few years ago when I was a committee member with the Parkinsons > society here. My feeling were then, and still are, I hate the word. I > consider myself friend, partener, sole mate, love and wife. The word > caregiver for me, and I can only speak for myself, implies I am just the > help. Do you NOT give care? In the context of your partner's Parkinson's, AND IN THAT CONTEXT ALONE, I return your question to you - WHAT ARE YOU? Yes of course you are all those other things, but those are in the context of Friendship, (Marriage) Partnership, Mating, Love & Uxoriousness. But, are you not ALSO, in the context of your own very special PWP, a Caregiver, or as is more common here in UK, a Carer? Why do we have to rail against these trivia? I am a Parkinsonian, a PWP, a "disabled person". I'm not proud of these labels, but in the context of my occasional lack of ability, my need occasionally for special treatment, my inability to work, even my access to this list, they accurately describe where I am at. I am not proud of them, but neither am I ashamed of them. Politically correct speech and euphemisms are destroying our ability to communicate. Let us by all means say what we mean. If a black man thinks of me as a "honky" or whatever, well so be it! I don't have to live with him. And if I did, well, "sticks & stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me". > What would be an appropiate word to use in place of this word? I > often wonder. There isn't one! What pleases you may offend my wife or vice versa. Let's try to be straightforward, say what we really think, and apologise if we inadvertantly offend someone. To my mind, the only reason for changing a label is if it doesn't carry the right message. And in the context of multiple sufferers (PWPs) and their multitude of wives, husbands, lovers, mistresses, sons, friends, daughters, grandsons or whatever kind soul(s) put(s) up with them and ease(s) their passage through life, that multitude is reasonably called, in general, "caregivers". Leave it rest at that, I say. It's what they (you) DO in common, one and another. -- Jeremy Browne, Hampshire, UK [log in to unmask] Shaking Hands BBS, Fidonet 2:252/160 (+44 1252 626233, also FAX)