The percentage of elderly people living in the United States is growing rapidly. As a matter of fact, over 54 million people in the US were senior-aged in the year 2019.
As more people across the country get older, the odds of you having an aging parent to worry about rise. Since you’re reading this post, you may already be facing down that challenge.
Taking an active role in your parent’s care is rarely easy. It is, for many though, something that’s essential and a noble responsibility our team would like to help make simpler for you.
Consequently, we’ve laid out 7 tips you should keep in mind as you move through your care process. By leaning on them, you’ll find the ability to better support the senior-aged loved ones in your life and yourself.
Keep reading to learn more!
1. Be Realistic About the Care That’s Needed
In our hearts, we all want to be there for our parents when they need us. That being said, some people require more care than we have the skills or the time to provide.
Can your parents prepare their own food? Do they need help using the restroom or showering?
Think hard about the strings that your parents have attached to their lives and your preparedness to manage them. If you think the level of care your parents need is out of your league, explore other options such as private home health care or government-assisted care if you’re under financial constraints.
2. Assist Without Condescending
When children take care of their moms and dads, their tendency to try and parent their parents comes from a place of love. Let us be clear though that no parent likes to be treated like a child by the people they raised.
Be mindful of that and the fact that your parents are still adults. Take their autonomy into consideration and never condescend to them by dictating what they can and can’t do.
3. Look Into Benefits
Adding the responsibilities that come with caring for an aging parent to your plate can be expensive.
You may not be able to take overtime shifts anymore. Costs of food and medical care expenses may go up. You might even need to move to a bigger place.
While there will likely be no way to offset those costs completely, you might be able to get away with dampening that burden by looking into government programs. There are local, state, and federal awards you may be able to claim for taking on your parent’s care needs. These awards are meant to push you to keep doing what you’re doing instead of letting your parents become the responsibility of the state.
Your city hall will have more information on programs worth applying to.
4. Appreciate Dietary Restrictions
If you and your family are used to ordering fast-food every night, know that your aging parents may not be able to eat as you do.
Diets are one of the chief things that are overlooked when it comes to casual elderly care. Diets can also be among the most time-consuming and expensive needs to manage.
The financial strain of elderly diets can be offset by leveraging the benefit programs we discussed in our last point. You might also explore low-income-focused private programs like Meals on Wheels that prepare and deliver nutritious meals for free.
5. Keep Your Parents Moving
Parents that have moved in with their kids might fall into a state of depression. It may be, in their estimation, that the freedom they enjoyed in their lives has ended.
Don’t let your parents settle into that reality.
Encourage your parents to go out. Set them up with local classes they can take with other elderly people. Invite them places.
The more active you keep your parents, the healthier and happier they’ll be in your care.
6. Take Accessibility Seriously
A routine fall could be fatal to an elderly person. Most falls we’ve seen are caused by accessibility issues in living spaces like toys being left out, chairs not being pushed in, and rouge steps.
Take all of the accessibility issues your home may feature into account and remedy them, where possible, to keep your parents safe when navigating your home. Even if you’re taking care of your aging parents at their house, doing an accessibility sweep of that property and making corrections is well worth your time.
7. Ask For Help
No matter how much you plan, at some point, you’ll find yourself overwhelmed when managing elderly parents. When you hit those points, do your best to not simply “push through the pain”. Instead, ask for help.
If you can hire part-time assistance, great. If you can get a family member to step in so you can take a break, that’s fine too.
However you solve your stress issues, make it a point to solve them so you don’t become burned out and resentful.
Your Aging Parent Doesn’t Want to Be a Burden
In all of the households that we’ve assessed where parents have become the responsibility of their children, we’ve seen a very common thread. That thread is that most parents feel bad that they’re imposing on their children.
Be mindful of that and let your parents know you welcome the responsibility of helping them live their best lives. That reassurance can go a long way when it comes to your parent’s will to live.
If you have more pressing lifestyle questions regarding aging parents you’d like answered, consider checking out more of the newest content we have available in our blog.