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Osteoarthritis Blog

By Carol & Richard Eustice, About.com Guides to Osteoarthritis

How to Best Raise Children When You Have Arthritis

Sunday June 21, 2009
Living with osteoarthritis can add extra difficulties and challenges to being a parent or grandparent. Arthritis is a disease that impacts the entire family. All parents experience feelings of doubt and frustration at times, but imagine the complication of coping with osteoarthritis while trying to balance what's best for your loved ones and yourself.

Accepting your limitations and adapting to change are important when raising children. Keeping yourself physically and emotionally healthy will help your loved ones. Your first goal is to focus on building trust with your children. They need to:

  • trust you
  • trust that everything will be alright
  • trust that what you tell them is true
  • trust that if they should be told something, you will tell them

With a foundation of trust -- getting your children to understand the limitations imposed by your arthritis is possible, but it will take patience. Encourage their questions and never fail to answer honestly. Here are some steps to follow as you decide How to Best Raise Children When You Have Arthritis.

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