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There are many important traits for a caregiver to have, especially when they want to care for seniors. Nonetheless, people of all ages, for all sorts of reasons, need care. If you’re thinking about being a paid caregiver or even looking to do so to help out a family member or close friend, you know that’s true!

Here are a few qualities and traits you can look for, to see if you’d be a good caregiver and if such a job path is right for you:

You’ve always been close with your grandparents (and even your parents), enjoying the wisdom and simplicity that ‘rubs off on you’ from hanging around with people who are older than you.
This naturally says “senior lover” like nothing else, but it doesn’t just mean you will be a good caregiver to that specific age group. It actually implies that, in general, you love to spend time with others, which is the number one sign to look for when becoming a caregiver.

You are more sympathetic than anything else and always yearn (even daily) for the opportunity to care for someone else’s needs and be there for them at all hours.
This goes along with the last point but adds a slight twist of its own — you not only enjoy being with others but want to make their lives more convenient as a whole. You simply love to bless and inspire the people around you, and you always have. You are, as ancient wisdom would hold, like a good, healthy tree, which bears all kinds of delicious fruits through its many branches. (In some cases, you cannot rest until you’ve made someone’s life easier or better in some way.)

You like to stay up past your bedtime.
Maybe you don’t love it so much now, but perhaps you did before, when you were younger, as your parents/aunts and uncles/grandparents would let you spend time with them as they’d tell you bedtime stories, or perhaps even real-life stories late into the night. This is a sign that you care more than about just getting your precious sleep; perhaps you’re a late ‘bed timer’ and an ‘early riser’ all at the same time, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Just remember to stay balanced. If you do not get the full rest you need, it can affect your service areas and attention to detail overall (which you, naturally, by your personality type, cannot afford to let slide). That’s a good trait to have: Countless caregivers are required to work ‘overnights’ at least one weekend per month.

You are someone who’s extremely patient and only wishes for a chance to continue to exercise such patience daily.
If patience is your daily virtue, then maybe this job is for you. With that said, this sort of character trait seems to be harder to find these days. You will find it much less in young adults and much more within the elderly themselves, many of whom have actually received care in the past and who have lived life and seen much, gaining the wisdom that comes from patience. Such people are ideal when it comes to patience, whether that be re-making the bedsheets that the patient has just once more undone, or answering the same question over and over because the client has forgotten the answer.

These were only a few ‘signs’ to look for. There are several others, of course. Ask yourself these first to see if you might become one of the next caregivers out there.