Little Big Town’s Kimberly Schlapman says caring for her mother Barbara, diagnosed with Parkinson’s about 20 years ago, has turned into 24-hour support—managed through family involvement and hired help, alongside constant coordination with doctors.
Kimberly Schlapman said her mother’s Parkinson’s diagnosis changed everything long before it became routine.
“It’s 24-hour care,” the Little Big Town singer, 56, told USA Today in an interview published on Saturday, May 30. She’s been living with that reality since her 78-year-old mother, Barbara, was diagnosed with the disease about 20 years ago.
When the diagnosis first came, Schlapman said her family didn’t know what the future would demand. “When she was diagnosed, we didn’t understand what her care would mean,” she recalled. “We didn’t know enough about the disease to know where we were headed.”
The memory goes back to 2005, when Barbara’s hand tremor became the starting point for answers. Schlapman described that moment as the day a doctor told her Barbara “may have Parkinson’s disease,” a movement disorder of the nervous system that worsens over time, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Schlapman said she now works with her family—and also hired help—to care for Barbara. The schedule and emotional weight are shaped by the work of being available whenever her mom needs support. “I was like, what?. What?. Because no one in our family, to our knowledge, has had Parkinson’s before,” she said. Once suspicion became diagnosis, the family still had to figure out what caregiving would look like in practice.
She also framed the role as something she actively chooses. Feeling the need to “be in multiple places at once,” Schlapman—who shares two daughters, Daisy, 18, and Dolly, 9, with her husband Stephen—said she relishes the responsibility to provide care for the people she loves.
“I love being a mama. I also know what my mama has meant to me in my life. Now I get an opportunity to care for her. That’s incredibly important to me,” Schlapman said. “I also have a job where people rely on me.”
Part of that commitment, she explained, is making sure she stays close enough to help Barbara consistently. Schlapman said she recently moved closer to her mom to ensure she’s “an active member of Barbara’s support team.” “We’re very. very involved in her care and with her doctors. and there’s one of us at every appointment she has. ” she told the outlet.
Schlapman, who is also an avid cook, used her experience to push for more open conversation about Parkinson’s. “There is no shame in this disease,” she said. “And there are so many of us out there living with it that we need each other and we need to talk about it. And the more we talk about it. the better off our loved ones are going to be because their care is going to be better and people are going to understand it more.”.
For Schlapman, caregiving isn’t a side chapter—it’s the work of daily life. And after years of learning what Barbara’s diagnosis means, she described it as something she wouldn’t want any other way.
Kimberly Schlapman Little Big Town Parkinson’s disease Barbara Schlapman caregiving USA Today interview Stephen Schlapman Daisy Schlapman Dolly Schlapman