Every Saturday morning, Shannon heads to her parents' house to help get them ready for another week. She feeds the cats and cleans the litter boxes, makes sure there are clean clothes and sheets, sorts the mail and fills her father's morning and evening pill case.

Then she and her dad review grocery needs and the shared calendar, checking upcoming appointments and ensuring someone will be there to care for her mother if Shannon needs to take him out of the house.

Shannon is a Las Vegas teacher with a son in high school and a daughter in college. Her parents moved to Las Vegas full-time after the pandemic. Her mother has dementia, and her father helps care for her at home while managing his own health concerns. Shannon helps with tasks they can no longer manage on their own, and over time, that list has grown.

Becoming a caregiver didn't happen in one day or all at once. She began tracking appointments after her mother's diagnosis. Then her mother fell several times over the span of a few weeks, and her father couldn't help her up on his own. Her mother wasn't seriously hurt, but the falls made it clear that Shannon's help was "no longer optional."

She's far from alone

Shannon is still getting used to calling what she does caregiving. To her, it's about supporting her parents as they age.

Around 560,000 Nevadans provide nearly 500 million hours of unpaid care each year, according to AARP's 2026 Valuing the Invaluable report. The estimated annual value of that care exceeds $10 billion.

Behind those staggering numbers are people juggling someone else's appointments, medications, and day-to-day needs alongside their own jobs, families, and responsibilities. For Shannon, that means arranging her family's needs and her teaching schedule around her parents' appointments.

The cost beyond money

Nationally, family caregivers spend an average of $11,508 a year out of pocket, up almost 60 percent from 2021, according to AARP's 2026 Caregiving Out-of-Pocket Costs Study. On average, caregiving expenses consume 31 percent of caregivers' annual household income. Costs are higher for those caring for someone with dementia.

For Shannon, though, some of the highest costs of caregiving can't be measured in dollars. Most significant is the time she has had to give up with her own family.

"I definitely have the most regret about the time with family that I have had to sacrifice," she said.

There's also the stress of not knowing what comes next and trying to prepare for it anyway.

You might be a caregiver, too

Driving a parent to appointments, organizing medications, sorting bills, shopping or checking that someone is safe can all be part of family caregiving. If that sounds familiar, you're not alone, and help is available.

What helps

Shannon describes herself as a type A perfectionist, so it's probably no surprise that she relies on checklists. A shared calendar with her father has also become essential.

"If we did not have a shared calendar with my dad, then we would have had many missed appointments and gaps in care," she said.

When the family first sought in-home hospice care for her mother, the hospice provider offered resources that helped Shannon know where to start. Looking back, she wishes she had known more about health care services for older adults from the beginning.

Start the conversation early

Shannon's first piece of advice is to have the hard conversations early. She wishes her family had talked about care preferences and planning documents before her parents' health began to decline.

Talk with your parents about what matters most to them as they age, she suggests, whether that's staying home as long as possible or having medical care close at hand. Then put it in writing.

Her second piece of advice is for caregivers themselves: make time to rest, and seek support. Caregiving, she said, is "too big of a job to do it alone."

Where to start

AARP Nevada offers free guides, planning tools and resources to help family caregivers get organized, plan ahead and find support. Visit Family Caregiving in Nevada: Where to Start.

About the author: Tod Story is the state director of AARP Nevada.