Optimize Life for Your Aging Parents and You

---

This book helps you think about what is the right answer now for you and your parents.

What is the next step? Many of the options can be expensive. The reality is your parents will die. This might not be an easy path as they decline.

You will deal with caregivers, doctors, death, funerals, and grief. It is critical you create a life line and support team to help you through the difficult times before their death and after. Take action now to optimize life for your aging parents and you. Be kind to your children!

As you become the aging parents, implement my suggestions and make life easier for you and your children. If your aging parent or loved one is still relatively healthy and independent, having him or her move in with you may work as the care may be minimal from you and your family — and your children will get to bond with their grandparent or family member.

However, moving parents out of their family home usually happens when there is some sort of health condition or crisis that acts as a catalyst for the transition. Many families feel obligated, or even want, to bring their elderly loved ones into their home when their health declines. Caring for an aging relative is a great way to give back some of the care, love and nurturing he or she may have given you.

But role-reversal can be challenging for everyone involved; not only for you, but also for your parents or family members as they may not want to be a burden or feel comfortable having you care for them. Do you get along well with your relative?

Account Options

You need to look at the history of your relationship to determine whether or not you can reside in the same house , let alone have you care for their needs. While conflict is normal, you have to consider quality of life for both yourself and your relative.

If you can move past conflict easily and feel living together will only strengthen bonds without sacrificing your sanity in the process, the arrangement may work. Even if you feel obligated to care for them, you have to be realistic about your relationship and whether or not you can live in harmony.

Is your home a rambler or wheelchair accessible? Can you afford a renovation that may involve installing electric chair lifts, ramps or bathroom renovations? Having someone move into your home can be very expensive, unless the family member is contributing to the expenses or you are getting paid for being a caregiver.

Here are a few things to consider:.

Should Your Aging Parent Move in with You?

A smaller study by the NAC showed the numbers may actually be much higher. You have to go with your gut when it comes to moving in your aging relative. Do you and your children feel excited about the potential move-in? There are many benefits to intergenerational bonding and heritage , and maybe the relative is healthy enough to babysit younger children, on occasion. Does your spouse have a good relationship with the relative? How does he or she feel about the move-in?

Living with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Can family members adapt to be compatible to accommodate multiple generations, in addition to possible care? Here are a few things to think about:. You need to consider whether you can balance everything. There are many support groups for caregivers, both in-person and online. When a relative moves in with you, he or she may be leaving his or her own social network and friends. Depression and loneliness from isolation could become an issue.

If you and your spouse work and your kids are in school, this translates into a lot of alone time for your relative. A social life for seniors is very important and they typically have a lot of time on their hands. Have you had an aging loved one or parent move in with you? What has your experience been like?

An issue the article also might have included is how your taxes might be affected by having a parent move in with you.

Please fill out the form to get senior care information:

For example, if your parent contributes to expenses and winds up paying market-rate rent, you might have to declare that income. There are also limits to how much they can earn and pay for themselves if you want to claim a parent as a dependent. A stair lift, chair lift, is an important piece of equipment to have for the elderly. We sell new, used and also rent these units. For elderly consumers needing personal care, i. In many cases, a family member can be paid to care for their loved one, other than spouses.

Also, there are services for many veterans worth inquiring about. Beware Medicaid Advisory Group — an org that is publishing this nonsense and probably has some nefarious relationship with this publication. I have personal experience with M.

They are incompetent and fraudulent. These people gave me the run-around for 6 months and got me nothing but heartache. They blamed ME for their failures, ignored my requests for info or involvement, and they are a classic case of a business model based on taking advantage of desperate and vulnerable customers. I had to get the guts to fire them and go it alone before I learned how much they had been holding me back.

My warning to all those who are understandably intimidated and wanting help: Stay Away from Medicaid Advisory Group and beware all group who make promises that sound too good to be true.

Optimize Life for Your Aging Parents and You

If you want it done right, you should do it yourself. Trust Yourself — not these scammers. How uncaring can you get? Our parents took care of us — now it is our turn to show the love for them that they gave us! When my mother died, my father 91 years old moved in with me. Together we combined our homes and I had a home built to accomadate his needs for his last 4 years.

• The Thinkers Thesaurus: Sophisticated Alternatives to Common Words (Expanded Third Edition)
• Live Better Longer
• Mountain Peaks of the Bible
• Popularizing National Pasts: 1800 to the Present (Routledge Approaches to History)
• La Latina Kama Sutra (Spanish Edition)
• Epcot Tour for those with Disabilities: A Self-guided Pictorial Tour (Visual Travel Tours Book 159)