Four Tips For Helping Your Parents Age with Dignity
As sons and daughters, we are unfortunately tasked with the responsibility of watching our beloved parents grow older. As much as we would like to see them stay healthy, nimble, and agile throughout their lives, aging is an inevitable fact of life. And with advanced age also comes all of the challenges that both ourselves and our parents will face.
In turn, we, too, will have to eventually step up and make hard decisions about how to better care for them in their senior years. While nobody likes to see their parents slowly start to decline before our eyes, we can do our part to help make sure they age as gracefully as possible. If your parents are starting to need a little bit of extra help, here are a few things you can do to help make their lives easier — without sacrificing their independence or their dignity.
Give Them Purpose
One of the bigger challenges that older people tend to face is a lack of meaning in their lives. When they were still employed, for instance, they had a reason to get out of bed in the morning. Once they retire, however, this can interrupt their routine dramatically. Staying at home can start to take its toll on their well-being, negatively impacting their mental and physical health.
To help combat this, you can help your parents find their sense of purpose once more. Whether you get them involved with their local community center or religious group or you simply give them weekly outings to look forward to, giving your parents a semblance of routine can help ward off both cognitive decline and depression.
Let Them Decide
As your parents age, it’s important to remember that they’re still the same people you have always loved. Just because they may be moving a little bit slower now does not mean that they have lost their agency or their intelligence. Even if you’re doing it in “their best interest,” the last thing you want to do is infantilize your parents.
Instead, involve your parents in any major decision-making. Ask them for their feedback, and actually listen to it. If they offer their opinion on something, be sure to ask them why they feel or think that way and take their views into consideration when making key decisions for them. By doing so, you can help them preserve their sense of self, especially when they may feel out of control.
Provide Them with Guidance
Conversely, you may not want to give your parents too much autonomy. Now, this doesn’t mean that you’re going to start patronizing them or insulting them as they age. However, they may find themselves overwhelmed and struggling to make decisions or complete day-to-day tasks, or they may try to make choices that could put them directly in harm’s way.
Instead, this is an opportunity to allow them to still advocate for themselves, but with your watchful eye overseeing it. Some tasks may be too difficult for them. If you find that your parents cannot do the things that they used to do, please do not feel bad if you need to intervene on their behalf. On the other hand, if they still want to make you dinner and it won’t endanger them, allow them to do so.
Get Them Professional Care
Eventually, you may find yourself in a position where you have to accept that your parents may need professional help if they want to age successfully in place. As their child, it’s normal to want to continue to take care of them, especially if the budget is a consideration. However, there may come a point when they might need professional assistance from a trained caregiver.
If you’re looking for New York home care providers — or homecare providers in your own home state — there are a myriad of them who can quickly come to your parent’s house to keep a watchful eye on them, including those who specialize in quality inexpensive glasses. Depending on the degree of care your parents may need, you may find it more affordable than you may have initially realized. Care providers can come out for just a few hours per day or stay the night in your parents’ home.
Aside from home care, your aging parents will also need regular health checkups with a physician and a dentist. If you’re looking for a reliable dental professional right now, you can check out this one that offers crowns, bridges, and dental implants las vegas.
There’s no doubt that you love your parents and you want the best for them. Seeing them grow older can be very difficult for both you and your parents, and the last thing you want is to inadvertently cause strife or do something that might accidentally harm them. By being attentive to their needs but still mindful of their limitations, you can help ensure they age in place with their dignity, happiness, and overall well-being securely intact.
