Caring for Elderly Parents—Mom and Dad’s Little Girl Forever?

Caring for elderly parents can seem to have no end. Usually just as children go off to college or otherwise leave the nest, caring for elderly parents fills any newly vacated time slot. Once again, a child’s time is not his own. He or she must now devote much coveted leisure time to caring for elderly parents not traveling or pursuing that hobby or business that would make retirement fulfilling. Today those in their sixties are often saddled with caring for elderly parents in their eighties and nineties. Living longer puts new constraints on family members—and not just monetary ones.

Often caring for elderly parents means moving a mother, father or both into the house just vacated by children. Unless the elderly parents have planned and saved for their care, which only a small percentage have, responsibility falls to the child or children to provide. And caring for elderly parents is not easy. Alzheimers is the fastest growing health concern for older Americans.

In the book 0 to 60, Susan Slater captures the agony of dealing with her parent’s dementia and caring for elderly parents from long distance. The pain of not being recognized by a mother ravaged with a disease that has robbed her of all function, is poignantly described. The veil between reality and chaos is thin and deceptive. Shelly, like all children caring for elderly parents, struggles with doing what’s right and doing what’s necessary.

 

Looking a good book about caring for elderly parents? Get your copy of 0 to 60 today!