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Living with your Older Parents -
a Survival Guide and Support Group |
This is your guide to finding the best ideas, hints and tricks to making your combined household work well for everyone. With generations stacked on generations, it gets complicated, but combining homes can work and be rewarding for everyone. You just need a lot of patience and a good support group. Our goal is to be your on-line support group.
First off, remember you are not alone. Adult children or relatives provide 75 to 80 percent of all long-term care in the United States. About 5 million seniors are being cared for in the homes of family members. As people live longer, more and more families are finding that the best way to take care of everyone is to all move in together. There has to a balance between assistance and independence, and as time goes on, this balance will shift.
Your parents fed and sheltered you for the first 18 years of your life, now you are returning the favor. Of course, everything is a little different now. Mom and Dad may still want to assert their parental authority, but you are all grown up. You may find that you don't really know each other as well as you thought you did - plus your parent may be regressing into a more childlike state, thereby reversing your roles. Add in a spouse and children, and your whole world feels upside down. The trick is to find each family member's place in the new household, where everyone can be safe and happy. Rather than reinventing the wheel, learn from the experiences of others. Choose to use the ideas that work for your family and give back ideas that could help others.
After all, this is about helping each other. Consider us part of your team and your support system - the one you can go to in the middle of the night when you finally get a break.
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| Parents in the House.net |
Your Resource and Survival Guide
for living happily ever after |
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