You can see Mom and Dad are slipping—maybe their home isn’t very clean or they aren’t eating properly. Perhaps they’ve had a few falls. But what’s the best way to help?
Used to be, there were only two options for taking care of aging parents: the family did it or your parent went to a nursing home. Neither you nor your parent(s) want to consider a nursing home—especially if your parent is still fairly healthy but occasionally forgets things or has trouble keeping up with household chores.
That leaves you.
Of course you want to take care of your parents.
If you’re like most people, you probably assumed you and your family would handle it somehow. But you might not have thought about how that would work exactly.
Mom and Dad may need help periodically throughout the day while you’re at work. Or you may find that if you’re cleaning their house and running their errands after work, you aren’t home to supervise your daughter’s science project or available to watch your son’s basketball game. And because you’re stretched so thin, your family is eating a lot of frozen pizza.
If you no longer live in the same town as your parent(s) or your job requires frequent travel, the arrangements are even more complex.
Sometimes you just can’t do it all.
Years ago, your mother wouldn’t have had any help taking care of your grandparents. Now fortunately, there are many flexible options for giving your parents the help they need:
• In-home care, either short-term (i.e. after surgery) or ongoing
o Companion
o Homemaker
o Personal care (Home Health Aide)
o Nursing
• Housing with services
• Residential care homes
• Assisted living
So quit feeling guilty because you can’t do it all (no one can). For more ideas about flexible care options, visit www.mnaging.org/.
