3 Key Changes to Look For As Your Parents Age - And What You Can Do to Help Them

Change #1: You visit your parents during the summer and all is well.  You visit them again at the holidays and the house is a mess.  Why?  Because your mother always took care of the housekeeping and now she’s no longer able to do it on her own.

Everyone ages differently but, the fact is, everyone ages – and the first time this really hits us is when we observe our parents journeying through their senior years.  Here are 3 major changes or transitions you’ll likely see at some point, along with solutions for how best to help your parents (and yourself) through them.

The solution:  Hire a housekeeper.  But that creates another problem: How to protect your parents when outside workers come into their home? 

The solution:  Do a home inventory.  Things can easily go missing and if there’s no official record of them, there’s no recourse.

To do a complete home inventory, go room by room and:

• Take a video of the entire room and verbally identify which room it is.
  
• Take photos of each object.
  
• Use a spreadsheet or one of the secure online home inventory sites to record each item.

Change #2: Your parent repeatedly calls you to say someone’s broken in and stolen something – only to find the “stolen” item hours or days later.  You realize your parent may be in the early stages of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. 

The solution:  First, make sure your parent sees a doctor so that a medical determination can be found.  Second, start keeping track of these calls and their happy resolutions.  Then have a gentle talk with your parent about doing a home inventory and perhaps a thorough organization of everything so items are easier to keep track of.

Change #3: Your parent’s doctors have made it clear it’s time they were moved to a care facility.  How do you move them when they can’t help you – and you live far away, you both work and/or have your own kids to worry about?

The solution: If you can corral your family members to help do it, that’s ideal.  Put a detailed plan and schedule together, and clearly assign who’s responsible for which of the following things: 

• recommending and coordinating the movers
• creating a floor plan for where your parent is moving to
• doing a complete home inventory 
  
• sorting and downsizing your parent’s treasures
  
• dispersing any items from the downsizing through selling, shipping, donating and discarding
  
• packing and unpacking
  
• resettling their new place so all they have to do is turn the key and start living in their new place

Given that the most congenial of families often can’t get along at a time like this, though, it’s often best to bring in someone to manage the move for you.  That’s where we come in.  As certified Senior Move Managers, we handle all of the above via our list of a la carte services – so you can decide how much of the stress and work you’d like us to manage for you.

Are you noticing changes in your parents? I'd love to hear your story.  Just leave a comment here, shoot me an email or chat us up on our Facebook page.  We’d love it if you’d “like” us.