| The parent who asserts that they will never be | | | | parents from a bit of a distance? While your parent |
| "sent" to a retirement home is the parent who fears | | | | has not been physically abandoned, might their fear |
| being abandoned in his or her old age. He usually has | | | | of being pushed aside have created a situation where |
| expectations that one of his children will take him in. | | | | they are emotionally invisible? |
| She might expect that she will be able to manage in | | | | Perhaps the ideal situation is when your parents have |
| her own home forever. This parent has rarely | | | | put the pieces in place so that even if they live in |
| purchased long term care insurance and often hasn't | | | | your home, you can afford some caregiving help. Or |
| thought much about what will happen when he can | | | | maybe if they understood that moving to a |
| no longer take care of himself. | | | | retirement community doesn't mean that they will be |
| Most adult children will agree that worrying about this | | | | abandoned will make it easier for them to consider |
| is hugely stressful for them once they start to think | | | | that option. When their health or memory begin to |
| about it. But is it possible that the parent who is | | | | fail, the time you spend with your Mom or Dad can |
| determined never to consider an alternative living | | | | be about keeping them company, making them |
| situation has actually cheated himself out of some | | | | comfortable, and allowing them to participate to the |
| meaningful experiences with his kids? Might this | | | | extent that they can in your life and your children's |
| mother and grandmother one day regret that while | | | | lives. Think about it. Don't let your parents do such a |
| she is living under the same roof with one of her kids | | | | good job of making you feel guilty if you consider an |
| that they are never really engaged with her on an | | | | alternative living situation that you forget that they |
| emotional level because they spend so much time | | | | need you on an emotional level. |
| attending to her physical needs? Is there a positive | | | | ©2009 LifeBridge Solutions, LLC. All rights |
| benefit that comes from adult children caring for their | | | | reserved. |