How To Care For Your Elderly Parents

As parents ourselves we know how special the bond is between a parent and a child. When they’re babies you’re their everything. You literally show them the world, feed them, bathe them, clothe them, teach them to crawl, walk, speak. You are their moon and sun and they are yours. When they grow up and make their own friends they start to need you less, maybe they only need you to bandage a grazed knee or to help them with long division. Then, at some point, your kids will grow up and move out and start their own lives – college, falling in love, maybe even becoming parents themselves one day!

Towards the end of our lives, the roles are reversed and children will often step up to care for their aging parents. It’s the circle of life. So, whether you’re currently stepping up to care for your elderly parents or if you’re just looking to prepare for your future, here are some key things to consider when you’re caring for your elderly parents.

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Be Realistic About What You Can Provide And Ask For Help When Needed

When you first start to notice that your parents are in need of some help, your sense of love of them and duty kicks in as does, it’s worth noting, a healthy helping of panic. You can often get it locked into your head that you’ll do everything yourself and whatever they need you’ll be able to do for them, however, that can be impossible and sometimes you’ll need to be realistic about how much help you’re able to provide.

Once you have a clear idea of what your parents’ needs are, you can start looking objectively at how much you’ll be able to do without additional help. Remember to be honest about how much you can provide without compromising on your own health, relationships, and prior responsibilities. Remember, your parents love you and looked after you first and would never want you to have to put your whole life on hold to care for their every need – ask for help when you need it.

Know When You’re In Over Your Head

It’s important to remember that, as much as you want to be there for your parents in the same way they were there to look after you when you were younger, it’s important to know your limitations. When you’re in over your head you have to ask for help, call it, it doesn’t make you any less of a dedicated child. There are a few options you can consider when you’re looking for help.

If your parents are living alone, socialisation is incredibly important and you could consider enrolling them in an adult day program where they could spend time with other seniors. You could hire an aged care worker to come help out, take your parents on outings, and check up on them while you’re at work. Lots of young nursing students work as aged care assistants while they’re studying, consider contacting a local nursing school to find out if they have any students who are looking for part-time work.

If they need more help than you can provide or if you’re looking to plan for the future you might want to consider an aged-care facility such as Kew Gardens. Many people caring for their parents find that this offers them the best peace of mind and that the facilities are chic, modern, and comfortable.

Make Mealtimes Easy

Considerations about mealtimes are important when you’re planning for your elderly parents. It’s important that older people continue to eat hearty, healthy and nutritious meals, however, cooking and all that it entails navigating the supermarket, managing sharp knives, hot stoves and raw food can be challenging for older adults. The challenges that come along with cooking often lead older people to skip meals entirely which can put them at risk of malnutrition which will negatively impact their immune capabilities.

Having your parents’ fridge stocked with ready-made meals is a great way to ensure that your parents are getting the nutrition they need. If you’re Australia-based, we can recommend The Dinner Ladies for nutritious, home-cooked, ready-made meals. It’s a massive weight of your own shoulders as well to be able to be confident and assured that your parents will have access to simple and nutritious meals at all times.

Plan Ahead

When you’re providing care it can sometimes feel like whack-a-mole, like just as soon as you’ve fixed one problem another one rears its head. While you’re solving problems as they arise it can be easy to lose track of the bigger picture.

It’s important to have conversations with your parents about their needs going forward and not to put off the big scary conversations including estate planning and end-of-life care. Make these choices early so you can spend the rest of your time focusing on the time you do have together. Check out this guide to how to broach these topics here.