When we offer any kind of support to aging parents, we learn quite a bit about Social Security along the way. One thing we discover is information about the various retirement ages that qualify for benefit payments. If other adult children are anything like me, they begin to think about their retirement years ahead and … Continue reading
Tagged with aging parents …
Senior Moment or Alzheimer’s?
As the adult children of aging parents most of us are used to hearing friends and colleagues make the “senior moment” comment. Often when a person over 45 or so has difficulty remembering something, he or she will comment, “…oops, I’m having a senior moment.” I began noticing this in my late 40′s and now, … Continue reading
Scams Aimed at Boomers, Too
Although we worry most about scams aimed at aging parents, adult children need to be sure that they, too, have the wherewithal to avoid victimization. Check out the blog feature Top Scams Targeting Baby Boomers During the Government Shutdown over at EmaxHealth, an independent health news organization. The post, by Kathleen Blanchard, details some of the creative ways that … Continue reading
Aging Does Not Automatically Degrade Decision Making Skills
An aspect of ageism is how many people seem to believe that seniors make poorer decisions as soon as they begin to age. According to a recent study described in a Health Day article at Medline Plus, older adults performed decision-making tasks just as well if not better than younger people. Participants ranged from age 18 … Continue reading
Do We Owe Our Parents?
I’ve just finished reading an interesting article, What Do We “Owe” Our Parents?, over on Next Avenue. In the September 12, 2013 online article author Suzanne Gerber discusses the motivations of adult children when it comes to aging parents and caregiving roles and describes a nationwide on-line survey conducted for More magazine, a publication aimed at mature … Continue reading
Green House Homes Featured on NPR
In case you missed it, listen to this terrific All Things Considered segment, Move Over Nursing Homes — There’s Something Different. The July 23, 2013 radio story describes a visit to a Green House community in Baltimore and features Dr. Bill Thomas, the geriatrician who created the concept of elder care communities that help residents … Continue reading
iPads for Seniors? My Dad Knows How Cool It Is!
iPads for seniors as a way to decrease isolation and stimulate intellectual curiosity? You bet! After writing over 20 iPad for Dad columns about my dad and his iPad, I could have told them so and my dad can, too. I know that Steve Jobs was not thinking about seniors in the elder years of their lives … Continue reading
Musician Amy Grant on Caregiving for Her Dad
If you help to support an aging parent and also like listening to folk music with strong spiritual themes (also called Christian pop), take a few minutes to listen to singer Amy Grant talk about caregiving for her aging father, a retired physician, and how these experiences influence her music. During the program, broadcast via … Continue reading
Steven Colbert’s Amazing Remembrance of Mom
Stephen Colbert took a few minutes, at the beginning of his June 19, 2013 program, share and remember his mother, Lorna, who died last week in her nineties. Well worth watching. The video is courtesy of Hulu via Upworthy.
Google Calendar: Collaborating With My Mom!
Every adult child has some type of calendar issue when it comes to scheduling certain activities with senior parents. Even when parents keep track of their own affairs, adult children often need to be aware of some of the events. It’s not that I need or want to know what my parents are doing every moment … Continue reading
Businesses Profiting and Benefitting from Aging
An article in Fiscal Times, How Startups Art Profiting from Aging Boomers, describes how boomers and individuals in other age groups are creating new businesses and products that respond to the needs of people who are aging. Adult children may want to become acquainted with this business trend because products may pop up that are … Continue reading
Aging Parent Hospitalization
I’ve written about senior parent hospitalizations several times on this blog. When a parent is hospitalized, an adult child needs energy, clarity, and attention to detail. Recently Dale Carter, over at Transition Aging Parents, wrote an excellent post about her experience when her mother was hospitalized for surgery, and she includes lots of ideas that … Continue reading
Why Do I Blog? Maybe Because Dad’s Kept a Journal for 64 Years
Tomorrow I am co-leading a workshop at my school about blogging. One question I am always asked when I talk about my blogs and the huge body of writing I’ve created is, “What got me started?” In October 2009 I began work on this blog, AsOurParentsAge.net, with encouragement from my husband. His mother, Betty, was near … Continue reading
Whose Eyes Are Checking Out That Digital Content?
In his recent post over at the Changing Aging blog, Kavan Peterson describes a short video, Forwarders. Intended as a parody of people who continuously forward e-mail, the video reinforces stereotypes about elders and aging. It’s sad that this short film focuses solely on one older adult, especially since so many people of all ages … Continue reading
Are Boomers As Healthy As They Think?
Over and over the media refer to boomers as a health conscious generation, and boomers often assume that their generation is healthier than their parents’ generation. Now new research, just published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, reaches conclusions that dispute the rosy boomer heath assumptions. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Health Examination … Continue reading
Stroke and Recovery: Changes In a Politician’s Perspective
If you have ever had a stroke event in your family, you know — as we do — about the frustrating process of recovery and rehabilitation, as well as the constant bickering with benefits providers when it comes to whether a person is making “enough” progress to merit continuing rehab sessions. If this is a … Continue reading
When the Caregiving Is For a Spouse
Check out the Washington Post article, Caregiving is Especially Complicated When the Patient is Your Spouse, an article originally published in the January 14, 2013 online edition. Written for the Consumer’s Union but appearing in the Post, the piece describes a book, The Caregiving Wife’s Handbook, by Diana Denholm, a licensed professional therapist who provided … Continue reading
Rosalyn Carter Talks About Family Caregiving
Michael Lindenmayer interviews former First Lady Rosalyn Carter in a January 17, 2013 piece at Forbes. Mrs. Carter speaks about family caregivers in the United States, noting the important role this group plays in the United States health care system. Family caregivers, she points out, provide much of the daily life support to family members with significant … Continue reading
Here’s to the Health of Remembering — Even After Forgetting
If you find yourself forgetting things (and taking more time to remember them than you want), read Dr. Bill Thomas’ post, Tip of the Tongue, over at his Changing Aging blog. He writes about the brain and presents a broad range of research findings that address memory, forgetting, remembering, age, and ageism. As we grow … Continue reading
Celebrating the Opening of Woodland Park – Part II
Several years ago, when Jody G. started working at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community (VMRC), she watched a video about the Green House Homes that were to be built. Immediately she fell in love with the concepts and wanted to become a shahbaz, the name for each person who works in the home. I knew right then … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age So Do We 