What do you think?
Rate this book
Redirect, Don't Correct: What to Say When a Parent Has Dementia: Calm, Ready-to-Use Responses for the Bath, the Sundown Hours and the Hardest Questions
The hardest part of dementia isn't the diagnosis. It's the moment your mother stands at the door in her coat at 4 p.m., desperate to pick up children who grew up decades ago — and nothing you say makes it better.
You tell her the truth, and she crumbles. You explain, and she gets more frightened. You correct her one more time, gently, and you watch the panic rise instead of fall. By the time you're both near tears at that front door, you've learned the cruelest lesson of this when you argue with it, it wins — and your mother is the one who pays for it.
There is a better way, and it starts with the words you use in the moment.
Redirect, Don't Correct is a calm, practical guide for the adult children caring for a parent with dementia or Alzheimer's — written for the moments that actually happen, not the medical theory. You'll learn the single shift that changes meeting the feeling instead of fighting the facts — and exactly how to use it tonight.
You'll know what to say when —
the bath or shower turns into a battlesundowning hits and the late afternoons unravel into fearshe begs to "go home" from the home she's lived in for thirty yearsshe asks the same question for the tenth time and your patience is goneshe looks you in the eye and says you stole from hershe lashes out — and when it's finally time to talk about the car keysthe money, the move, and the guilt that rides in with bothEvery chapter ends with a quick-reference action card you can find in seconds while you're standing in the moment, plus a toolkit of ready-to-copy forms for medications, appointments, emergencies, and wandering.
And the final chapters are for the part no one warns you you. The grief for someone who is still alive. The resentment. The burnout. The guilt you feel for feeling any of it. You cannot pour from an empty cup — and this book treats keeping you whole as part of the job, not an afterthought.
You can't stop the disease. But starting tonight, you can change what the next five minutes feel like — for her, and for you.
If someone you love is disappearing by inches, you don't have to find the words alone. Get Redirect, Don't Correct and have them ready before the next hard moment comes.
You tell her the truth, and she crumbles. You explain, and she gets more frightened. You correct her one more time, gently, and you watch the panic rise instead of fall. By the time you're both near tears at that front door, you've learned the cruelest lesson of this when you argue with it, it wins — and your mother is the one who pays for it.
There is a better way, and it starts with the words you use in the moment.
Redirect, Don't Correct is a calm, practical guide for the adult children caring for a parent with dementia or Alzheimer's — written for the moments that actually happen, not the medical theory. You'll learn the single shift that changes meeting the feeling instead of fighting the facts — and exactly how to use it tonight.
You'll know what to say when —
the bath or shower turns into a battlesundowning hits and the late afternoons unravel into fearshe begs to "go home" from the home she's lived in for thirty yearsshe asks the same question for the tenth time and your patience is goneshe looks you in the eye and says you stole from hershe lashes out — and when it's finally time to talk about the car keysthe money, the move, and the guilt that rides in with bothEvery chapter ends with a quick-reference action card you can find in seconds while you're standing in the moment, plus a toolkit of ready-to-copy forms for medications, appointments, emergencies, and wandering.
And the final chapters are for the part no one warns you you. The grief for someone who is still alive. The resentment. The burnout. The guilt you feel for feeling any of it. You cannot pour from an empty cup — and this book treats keeping you whole as part of the job, not an afterthought.
You can't stop the disease. But starting tonight, you can change what the next five minutes feel like — for her, and for you.
If someone you love is disappearing by inches, you don't have to find the words alone. Get Redirect, Don't Correct and have them ready before the next hard moment comes.
90 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2026
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 26, 2026
I’ve read about a dozen books on dementia and caregiving, and this one stands apart. It feels like the author is right there beside you—sitting at the kitchen table or standing in the doorway—guiding you through situations that can feel impossible in the moment. The tone is so supportive and reassuring that you don’t feel so alone.
Each chapter gives clear, practical ways to respond to real‑life challenges: repeated questions, refusing a bath, sundowning, and more. At the end of each one, there's a concise summary. Super-helpful! She also walks you through how to prepare ahead for emergencies, including what to do if your loved one wanders. The advice is calm, doable, and grounded.
This book will be one of the first ones I recommend to anyone caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s!
Each chapter gives clear, practical ways to respond to real‑life challenges: repeated questions, refusing a bath, sundowning, and more. At the end of each one, there's a concise summary. Super-helpful! She also walks you through how to prepare ahead for emergencies, including what to do if your loved one wanders. The advice is calm, doable, and grounded.
This book will be one of the first ones I recommend to anyone caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s!
September 7, 2026
Everything Hannah Easton mentions in this book has happened to my family. My Grammie is now in a nursing home because it got too bad for us to take care of her. Like mentioned in one of the chapters, all of the responsibilities fell on my mom even though she has 3 other siblings. Two of those siblings live in the same town as my mom and Grammie. This really showed me that my Grammie’s story isn’t unique and it happens quite often. I have been researching Dementia since my Grammie started showing signs many years ago. I’m happy to see that what I’ve been doing was one of the “right” ways to do it. Dementia affects the family just as much if not more than the person who has it. The person who has it has no idea what’s going on but their family sees it day in and day out and they feel so helpless. Your family member gets taken over by this disease. You morn the loss of your loved one before they have even passed. It’s a really sad situation. My heart goes out to other families who have a loved one suffering with this awful disease. Thank you so much Hannah for writing this book!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews