The past two posts suggested ten ways people can help when your child is hospitalized. Today’s ideas are designed to bring some fun into the mix. The longer a hospital stay is, the more necessary fun and laughter become, at least if you plan to keep your sanity. So the next time people ask what they can do, let them play with these ideas.

Food

Cafeteria food gets old after awhile. Ask people to bring a home-cooked picnic meal or take-out food.

Shopping

Give a power-shopping friend a list of toiletries and other things you need. She’ll have a good time, you’ll get what you need, and you’ll both be happy.

Transportation

Depending on how far you are from home, trips to and from the hospital can be difficult. Ask someone to arrange rides for you, your kids, spouse, parents, or others who want to visit.

Decorating

If your child’s hospital room looks like, well, a hospital room, get some home-decorating mavens to add a homey touch or decorate for the holidays. It will raise your spirits and your child’s.

Entertainment

If the hospital and your child’s condition allow, have someone organize a weekly movie night or even parties for a special occasion.

Even when your child is seriously ill, you have permission to play. So go ahead and laugh. Get silly. Have fun. It’ll do everybody good: you, your family, and the people who want to help. If you have more ideas of ways people can help, please leave a comment.

The previous post suggested five ways parents of hospitalized kids can respond when people offer to help. The longer your child’s illness lasts, the more ways people can assist you. Here are five more ideas for the people who want to make your situation manageable.

Pet Care

Arrange for someone to care for your pets in your home or provide “foster care” in theirs.

Laundry

Have someone drop off clean clothes once or twice a week and talke your dirty ones home to launder.

Technology

If you’re uncomfortable with technology, have a teenager or computer guru create and update a webpage for you on www.carepages.com or www.caringbridge.com. Or ask a techie friend to help you connect with the outside world by downloading your digital camera, sending out pictures via email, ordering prints, dealing with cell phone issues, or creating a facebook account.

Yard work

Depending on the season, ask a neighbor to mow, water, shovel snow, and tend flower beds.

Cleaning

A long absence can leave your house and refrigerator pretty skanky. Ask volunteers to give your house a thorough going over before you come home. They can even throw the moldy stuff in the refrigerator away and stock it with milk, eggs, and bread. Coming home to a clean house makes the transition from hospital to real life go much smoother.

If accepting help or admitting that you need assistance is hard for you, remember that the people who care about you are hurting for you, too. When let them shoulder your needs, not only are they ministering to you, you are ministering to them.

In my next post, you’ll learn five more ways people can help when you’re in the hospital with a sick child.

How should you respond to offers of help when your child is hospitalized? Should you decline because you don’t want to be an inconvenience? Should you brush them off so you don’t appear vulnerable and needy? Or should you hold people at arm’s length because it hurts to let anyone into your life right now?

Whatever possible reasons you have for refusing assistance, now’s the time to set your objections aside and accept help, especially if your child’s hospital stay will be long. But if someone offer to help and you draw a blank, use this list to get some ideas.

Mail and Papers

Have someone drop off your mail and newspapers at the hospital. Even if the post office is forwarding your mail, have someone check your mailbox in case important correspondence accidentally slips through.

Watch the House

Give trusted neighbors a key so they can walk through and look for leaky pipes and faucets, reset the thermostat, water plants, and check the lights every day or two.

Child Care

Ask family members or close friends to either move into your home to care for your healthy children or take your kids to their home and care for them there.

Car Pool

Perhaps another parent in your child’s social circle could take over your car pool duties.

Phone Tree

Cut down the number of phone calls coming into the hospital bu assigning a communications coordinator to create and activate a phone tree. This is especially if you and your child need to get some rest. Call the coordinator at a set time each day and give her health updates and prayer requests to pass on to others.

The longer your child is hospitalized, the more you need to accept offers of assistance from the people around you. In the next post, we’ll look at five more ways people can help if your child has an extended hospital stay.