We always hope that our parents will be healthy and live independently forever, but the unfortunate reality is that they take care of us early in our early lives and we often reciprocate it later. However, at a certain stage, it can become too much to handle alone.
When they require more help than you can provide while you’re working full-time, you may consider an assisted living community as a viable solution.
Here are 4 ways to know when it might be the right time and the best option for your mother or father.
- Getting Around is Becoming More Difficult
Many seniors aren’t happy using online shopping solutions. While some have adapted to buying over the internet, many still prefer to go personally to do their weekly shop.
The problem is when they need to drive out to the store and may no longer feel comfortable doing so with diminishing eyesight or hip problems. Taxis can get expensive as an alternative too.
Also, wheeling food out to the car or taxi and lifting it in/out of the trunk isn’t as easy as it used to be. Pretty soon, shopping becomes more difficult to accomplish on their own.
- A Few Too Many Kitchen Accidents
Determining when an assisted living community might be a good option is possibly when they’ve had several unfortunate accidents in the kitchen.
Sliding or lifting a boiling pot of water from one hob to an adjacent one to make space to fry an egg could have led to it tipping over and scalding them. Pulling a tray of food from the oven might now be too heavy too.
Bear in mind that not all accidents are ones that they will volunteer to tell you you may only see the result of it through an unexplained bandage on their arm or wrist. With assisted living, meals are cooked for the residents, and a dining area is provided. This removes the need to handle food shopping or cooking with boiling water or oil.
- Forgetfulness is Becoming Worrisome
It’s natural for the memory to start to fail us as we get older. That’s never truer than with previously infallible parents (at least in our eyes). We’re often surprised to discover that they’re forgetting simple things, such as what they did recently. Then we realize that their short-term memory is beginning to falter.
Unfortunately, this can lead to forgetting to close the front door or lock the car door, turning off the stove after they’ve finished cooking, and mistakes with other basic tasks. They may forget to mark down what they’ve spent recently, and their finances start to unravel through mismanagement. All of it can become worrisome.
- They’ve Becoming More Isolated
Friends naturally drift away or move away, leaving us with fewer of them as we get older. Our parents often have it worse as they increasingly hear about friends who have passed away.
Socializing opportunities become few and far between as a result of fewer friends coming around. This can create a greater sense of loneliness that can impact their sense of confidence and wellbeing.
Assisted living communities can help lighten the load for older people, create more socializing opportunities, and make life more enjoyable again. There are also plenty of opportunities to be active within them too.
I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
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