My Mom is always watching the news and it adds to her depression and bad attitude. Does anyone else have this issue?

Careinhome, step up and reveal yourself TROLL! You have no right speaking of others like that! Keep it respectful on this forum, we are All here to help one another! You even fail to fill out your account bio, or even state who your caring for! There is no reason to bash people who you don't even know, and will get no support here, when You really need it! Are you a TROLL, Just out to cause trouble? Hmmm!

Aren't the trump and palin bashers just the same? Or even the comrade Bernie lover? I imagine if I wanted to take the time I could couch my comments in a more covertly hostile manner as they do. Would you feel better then? I have cared for my mother with cancer and Alzheimers. I currently care for my mil who has a number of ailments. I also run a home care agency. The only place politics has come up in my professional dealings has been the unfair, petty bashings that have occurred on this question.

Ah, Jeanniepo, a Trump admirer sounds like. Well, it may not be a political forum but it is a column that asks for comments from people who can help and deleteaccount was asking if anyone had any ideas of how to get her mother away from the TV. They have the right to speak their mind especially when it comes to a Nazi trying to be a president of our country. Most of them were funny and meant to be comical just because of the content. Don't be so serious and if you don't enjoy reading about your favorite candidate, just don't read it. And, your mom has her opinion about our younger generation and no one is attacking you for saying your opinion and hers about our kids. I hope they don't delete the comments either. This is still America and we still have freedom of speech as long as a republican isn't our president but who knows? The next one will probably try to take that away from us too! Keep it cool, Jeannie.

Politics is usually a big part of major changes within any country and/or population group. I think the old folks are trying to reconcile experience in which politics often led to constructive outcomes, like the development of Social Security, Medicare, education, civil rights, and our interstate transportation systems to name a few.
I almost want to revise my will and specify if my eldercare people sense my distress with trashy media when I'm old, I would like it minimized. Not banned, but minimized so as to allow me to age away peacefully.
We all need protection when we arrive in this world and when we leave this world. deleteaccount's mom needs protection and deserves to have the topic explored so she and her family may have some peace in their lifetimes.

Terry, it's not about free speech. It's about staying on topic. If people want to discuss politics here, please open a thread on the topic. I am very active in local governmental issues, but when I come to this site I expect to focus on our concerns for our elders, not be subjected to endless palaver about the Presidential Reality Show and the mindless pap the MSM spoon feeds the rapt masses. I don't have a problem with the occasional parenthetical political comment but this thread has been hijacked, and casual reference to the original question does not make the commentary relevant. Hope I haven't been too harsh, but 98 posts into the topic with most of them gossiping about Trump and Palin has become quite wearisome.

My dad most definitely watches waaayyyy to much news and focuses waaayyyy too heavily on the upcoming presidential elections. I hear the same stuff over and over. Lately I've been telling him what my pastor said recently in church---I think the pastor was tired of hearing it from the parishioners---he said "God knew who the last president was going to be before the election ever happened and he was okay with it or it wouldn't have happened. He also knows who the next president will be and He's also okay with that or it won't happen" My dad is a Christian man so this puts a stop to it, at least for a while! (Disclaimer---my personal thought, NOT starting a religious debate)

As I said right from the outset you have to examine whats happening here. Is it the news itself that she finds depressing, the content of the news, the characters and the way they are portrayed in the news or the focus on foreign affairs perhaps or the visual images. bearing in mind most people who have Alzheimer's at some point lose their ability to distinguish fact from fiction you might find other programmes would have the same effect and be equally if not more depressing if she cannot join the dots and realise that they are NOT happening now, in her room. Mum is actually frightened and therefore distressed by violence and while I guess I am going to be politically lambasted for it, the political focus of news stations can give very different slants on the same issue. It is also why I said that LOCAL news tends to be softer than the country's news which can be highly political. In the run up to elections there will be a lot said that your mother will find depressing for once upon a long time ago politics used to be honest and upright, now not so much and she will find the bitter knife twisting unpleasant and not something she sees as being fair.

She may even be watching a station variant from her views although I wish you well in trying to find a programme that clearly interests her but doesn't depress her. Don't we all think it's about time there was a news slot called good news that recognised the worth of our black youth, that recognised the good things poor people do, that recognised that Muslims do fantastic things too. Now wouldn't that be a station she would love to see? And actually so would I

I agree with Terry. I'm Canadian, and while I find USA politics fascinating, it is just a very little part of the big picture in terms of global activity and "bad news". Given the attention it garners, though, I can understand the lure. But Terry's right to pull everyone back to being on topic. Collective respect is key here.

Sorry - I meant to say I agree with Dejavuagain - who points out that it is not about free speech, it's about staying on topic. Answer #99, to be specific. And Dejavuagain took time to count the off-topic posts, which was thoughtful.

How about trying to delete some of the channels from the menu? We have allowed access to only a handful of networks that provide "family" value programming and adjust accordingly as needs arise.

Get parental tv controls!

My mother-in-law listens to talk radio all day -- she's visually impaired and doesn't watch TV. Same problem with negativity, though. She will often use the dinner table to rant about whatever she's heard during the day. We have a 9 year-old son - he's not at all happy with the negative tone and having the conversation high-jacked. Anyway, we have a "conversation cup" on the table, with questions "What historical even would you go back and change" "What would you change about yourself" etc. When things get too negative, we redirect with a coversation-starter from that cup. It helps.

What about the "please come and watch t.v. with me" for 7 hrs, a day?................I have done it and got such a bad low back pain that I have told her that I cannot watch it with her all that time. I feel guilty for a lot of things that I am going through as I care for her. Quit my job, and I do everything to juggle caring for her. It is a privilege to care for your elderly parents, and I will not have to worry about the care she would be getting elsewhere. My mom is very clingy, and that is my main "complaint". She will be 91 and physically strong. Health issues are minor. She bathes and eats on her own. Been in my house 5 years and very forgetful. Not ALZ, just old age. Cannot remember how to knit, crochet, sew, so no entertaining past times. Forgets t.v. characters between commercials, so she wants me to explain the program .............. frustrating, but I think I have learned to be honest with myself and trying not to be mean to her, just because she is forgetful. If she could, she would not be forgetting. I have no siblings, so I don't have respite time. The state gives me an amazing amount of hours paid to compensate me..........a whopping 7 hrs. per week!!! Well, I tried getting more and instead, I got less, after state worker's assessment. I miss my mom... I miss who she was. Any of you, going through similar to me? Thanks!

Oh, and cannot navigate the remote control for the t.v, so I wrote what three buttons she needs with a silver Sharpie, ... has been a great help! ! ! Mulata88

Saw for the first time, a jumbo remote the size of a tablet or larger kindle- this was in a tool store-harbor freight, but it may be elsewhere too.
Big, big buttons. No reading glasses necessary.

Well, get this! Since mom's first language is Spanish, and the news in Spanish are very explicit, and beyond depressing, I have decided that news will not be watched by her. She gets scared and confused with the news. While I am in the kitchen, and she would be watching, she's telling me about this topic, or that, wants me to come to the living room and watch what awful thing is happening in other countries, and I will come running, and the segment is over, and she doesn't know where it was, or what happened, etc. No more news. I watch them on my own in the late evening . I have made a list of what is light, funny and refreshing. ......... VERY HARD TO FIND, but that keeps the mood up, and light. Challenge to find channels, but she's getting better at it. =)

Mulata88 I am curious, what funny, enlightening spanish Channels List do you have, I really Need one- Mom And dad love to watching Primer impacto Al rojo vivo (very depressing) not to mention casi cerrado (disgusting). Plz share list

Absolutely same with my Mom. I'd like to sue a certain cable channel that is known for exageration and falsehoods for elder abuse. It is like an addiction and I've seen many people talk about it. They keep them obsessed through fear. It's a crazy world we now inhabit.

Fact check: is it *true* that the Clintons "own" ABC? As has just been claimed on our lunchtime news by Mr Trump's spokesman.

To UK ears that sounds like a wild exaggeration, but on the other hand how would I know - is it so?

Yes! So glad you brought up this point. Both my parents tune in to a local news show and watch the bad reports over and over... they both have dementia, so they react with the same horror and dread each time. They start with the daily paper, which has the same focus on bad news. I don't even own a television, but I have started to use their TV guide to switch to either entertaining or educational shows when I'm there, saying "I think you guys will like this, can we watch it for a short while?" They're curious enough to say yes, and then they get into the show easily and usually enjoy it. I often ask if we can turn the television off and listen to some music - that's less popular with them, as it doesn't give them something to "watch," but it's still better than a steady diet of bad news. Keep trying!

I'm going to avoid giving my political viewpoints and simply say my mother was the same. She was a very negative person anyway. Her favorite expression when she was in her 80's & 90's was "isn't it awful".
The news is easy for them to understand (as opposed to more complicated shows and dramas with fast talking and fast movements). Since the news focuses on nothing but the sensational and mostly bad you have to expect it feeds into their negativity.
Seniors are very conscious of the news which is not very cheerful. They lived during a time when there was much more patriotism, less strife and violence in America then there is today. With advance technology, all the bad stuff from all over the world is at their fingertips and the media loves to report it.

Yes, this was a big problem with my FIL for over a year. When we would visit, he was watching the idiot box. We asked him to turn it off but he would just turn down the volume, his eyes still glued to the television. After a few times of this, my husband and I would say something like "we're obviously interrupting your program" and we would get up and leave. We did this several times. Now when we visit, the television is off and the radio is on. He's also reading books again.

You can change your behavior and reaction to your mother's television news addiction. I think it's perfectly acceptable to tell your mother that you do not share her interest in bad news. If she won't quit bad news, and her depression is getting worse, maybe the only solution is get rid of cable television. I wish you lots of luck!

I know these posts are a year old, but have to add this. My mom passed away two years ago. She was hard of hearing and wanted to watch the weather channel all the time. Don't know why because she never went outside. It drove me absolutely nuts--especially the local on the 8's with that music! She would turn the volume up so loud! I wore earplugs and read books or went to another room. I have not watched the weather channel since.

I have the same problem when "I" watch the news, I quit watching years ago for my sanity! Mom watches but understands very little of what is really going on politically but she does and always has seemed to fixate on all the tragedies they play over and over and over at nauseaum!

Joanne656, my Dad was a weather-watcher junkie. It came from working on a farm back in his youth where weather was highly important.

The only draw back would be that Dad would call me saying things like the schools were closed in Chicago because of the snow. Well, that's interesting since I have no children and live in Virginia :P But to Dad it was important. I wish I had more patience to understand why that was so urgent to him back when he was still with us.... [sigh]

I used to love the weather channel back in the day when they had actual educational segments but it's been a long while since we even had the capability. It doesn't matter why your father found it urgent just that it did and most importantly it gave him a reason to call you and talk with you.

Quite honestly, even for the younger person the news does bring them down! I have to say if watching the Weather Channel, with "the repetitive on the 8's" [insert UGH], then so be it! Buy up bulk ear plugs-LOL.

FreqFlyer. Its funny you mention your father watching the weather. Is it me, or do men have a lot more interest in weather? When I was working the guys in the office had logged into all these sophisticated weather maps that seemed to be on their screens half the day. My husband is ALWAYS logging in and out of the weather channels! Me? I look outside and dress accordingly. Other than when a snowstorm is predicted, I don't care - its weather and it comes and goes.
Anyway, this appears to be an old thread but I'll weigh in anyway. My mother used to watch CNN and then she would start in with the "isn't it awful" talk. Sadly, our tv news stations thrive on everything bad, and now the internet news is the same. I no longer watch any news on tv - and lately have stopped reading on line articles. I glance at the headline, that's it. It is so depressing for anyone to hear only the bad, over and over. News seldom reports anything from other countries, or anything good. No wonder the US docs prescribe so many antidepressants. We are being led into the swamp of violence, hate and sex by the media.

My FIL is obsessed with the weather. If there is a potential weather tragedy unfolding somewhere in the world he will be glued to the television.

Let me just say The Weather Channel icon is now burned into my mother's t.v. You can still see it even when you change the channel hahaha!