@llsmith211 My husband also does not remember when he moves or hides things. I use to argue with him trying to convince him, but as I have learned more, I know that arguing is useless and it just makes both of us angrier. I now say I don’t know what happened to the moved or missing item…a lot, and I will suggest we look around for whatever has mysteriously disappeared. That seems to calm him down and usually I can redirect him at that point and the crisis passes. Does it always work? No, but most of the time it does.
Today was not a good day. He woke up like he was in a different world and accused me of having been away all night (I wasn’t, I was right there in the bed with him) but regardless he was leaving. I stayed calm while he was gathering his things to go. I asked him where he was going and how was he going to get there and did I need to call someone or take him somewhere? He had no answers, but he proceeded to carry all of his shoes out to the front porch…I told him someone would get them if he didn’t bring them back in, but he ignored me. I later went out and brought them back in and put them somewhere different than his closet…anyway, the look on his face was priceless when he decided to bring them back in and they were gone. Maybe he will remember that if he tries to put anything else out. I will put his shoes back in his closet this week when he goes to Respite. He won’t remember the ordeal today, but I was proud of myself for staying calm and handling things better than I have in the past. We are all in this together and we learn from each other through the good, the bad, and the ugly. Try to be patient with your mom even when it is very hard…we have to bite our tongues a lot. 😊