Role Reversal - You and Your Elderly Parent
As we grow older, it's natural to think back to our childhood, to a time when our parents took care of us. Now, as an adult, you may find yourself providing temporary, moderate or severe care for your aging parent. Is this a true role reversal, and are you really parenting your parent?
You will never stop it being your parent's child, and each parent-child relationship is different. Some parents and their adult children get along very well, while others don't.
Expectations, lifestyle, work and other family responsibilities as well as location play a large role in how adult children take care of their elderly parents.
One thing is for certain - as much benefit, reward, and passion you get out of taking care of a needy or frail parent, you're like lever to run into several challenges, aggravations, and at times, frustration and anger.
Understanding what's involved in caring for a parent means understanding more deeply the relationship between parents and their children as well as their obligations and responsibilities.
While you may not be able to physically care for your parent due to a number of circumstances or factors, there are things that you can do to foster independence, enhance the quality of life of your parent, and create even stronger patent-child bonds than ever before.
Just because your parent may require emotional or physical support during their later stages of life doesn't mean that you treat them like children. Your parent will always be your parent, and you their child. It's important for adult caregivers to remember certain things when taking care of their elderly loved ones:
Always remember with role reversal that your parent has gone through life, experienced a variety of emotions, and may even have struggled and suffered.
Your parent may be frightened to be losing some or most of their independence, and most are very hesitant to rely on loved ones or the charity of others for their well-being.
Most of all, remember that your parent is a human being that deserves to be treated with respect, compassion, and dignity, regardless of their circumstances.
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Dec 28, 20 12:23 PM
My mother is 93, in good health, no major heath issues, totally ambulatory. When my father died 6 years ago we found her a beautiful independent senior
Dec 28, 20 12:21 PM
So I lost my mom 18 months ago. After her passing I would come to my parents house to clean and cook a couple of times a week for my dad. He still gets
Dec 28, 20 12:18 PM
I came back home in 2004 to help my dad as he had cancer, he eventually passed away few years later. Well here I am am in 2020 still at home taking care