Before you take on any of the responsibilities of being a caregiver (moving a parent) be sure you have all the legal documents your parents created reviewed by an attorney. You want to be sure you have the power to make health or financial decisions for the parent if need be. Especially if there are siblings involved who do not want to take on the responsibility of being a caregiver but will want to control the financial or health decisions.
Margaret, thank you for an excellent article. Lot of good things to think about. What I am noticing is that some of our elders aren't planning ahead, thus they don't have a 5-year plan on the "what ifs".
I was lucky that my parents [in their 90's] owned a house in the same subdivision that I lived, thus it made it so much easier for sig other to literally run over to their house any time my Dad would fall [which was pretty much weekly]. Made it easier to do my parents grocery shopping, driving to doctors, etc.
The down side was that my sig other and myself were pushing 70 years old and were now facing our own age decline issues that my parents were blind to... we were still youngsters to them. Plus we wound up enabling my parents to continue to live in that big single family house, while neglecting our own house.
Most of us have had zero experience dealing with an elder parent, thus there were no mentors to guide us along.... until I found this website :)
Another consideration: How much time will your parent expect you to spend with them? Daily - for an hour or more? Two or three times a week? Weekly? We have found that our parent seems to be healthier with at least 4 - 5 hour long visits a week.
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Carefully Consider the Implications of Moving an Elderly Loved One Closer to You
I was lucky that my parents [in their 90's] owned a house in the same subdivision that I lived, thus it made it so much easier for sig other to literally run over to their house any time my Dad would fall [which was pretty much weekly]. Made it easier to do my parents grocery shopping, driving to doctors, etc.
The down side was that my sig other and myself were pushing 70 years old and were now facing our own age decline issues that my parents were blind to... we were still youngsters to them. Plus we wound up enabling my parents to continue to live in that big single family house, while neglecting our own house.
Most of us have had zero experience dealing with an elder parent, thus there were no mentors to guide us along.... until I found this website :)
We have found that our parent seems to be healthier with at least 4 - 5 hour long visits a week.