For a long time, I didn’t recognize idle time as a problem. When I sat with my mom and nothing was happening, I assumed it was fine. Rest is important. Quiet moments are part of the day. But over time, I began to notice a pattern I couldn’t ignore. Those were the moments when she became the most unsettled. She would shift in her seat, grow restless, sometimes withdraw or become agitated. I didn’t understand why. Nothing had happened. There was no clear trigger. So I did what most people do. I...

There were many times when I relied on the television with my mom. It was the easiest option. If I needed a moment, if I didn’t know what else to do, I would turn it on. It filled the room. It gave us something to focus on. It felt like I was doing something helpful. And at first, I told myself it was working. But then I started paying closer attention. She wasn’t interacting with it. Sometimes she would look at the screen. Sometimes she wouldn’t. There was no response, no participation, no...

For a long time, I thought engagement was about attention. If my mom was looking at something, responding verbally, or following along, I assumed she was engaged. But when her cognitive decline progressed, those signals started to disappear. She wasn’t responding the way she used to. She wasn’t following conversations. And I kept trying to reach her the same way—through words, through explanation, through prompting. It wasn’t working. What I didn’t understand at the time was that I was...