Help! Aging Parents: cranberry necklace

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Sunday, November 18, 2012

Specific Thanksgiving Gifts Help Parents and Grandparents Age Well

When I think Thanksgiving, I think Family Togetherness and the many opportunities--gifts actually--to engage, stimulate, connect, enhance self-worth and share love.

3 Gifts, Incorporating the above in various ways

1. Being with family is what aging parents and grandparents say they want most. Stimulation and Connections top the list of factors that help people age well and doesn't being with family provide this?

Please visit my other site to see entire post: http://helpparentsagewell.com/2012/11/11/specific-thanksgiving-gifts-help-parents-and-grandparents-age-well

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Aging Parents and Thanksgiving

As we all know and have seen documented so many times, “connections with others” is one of the most important factors in aging well. Thanksgiving connects the generations by just being together as well as through conversation. It also provides opportunities to contribute–in large or small ways–which especially makes older people feel worthwhile, needed. And isn’t that a priceless gift.

Dad could never make the pumpkin chiffon pie that Mother continued to make in her mid-80′s. But Dad could string that cranberry necklace up until his last Thanksgiving at age 94. With warm wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving.

Please visit my other site: http://helpparentsagewell.com for the complete post.

Hi, I'm Susan~

--Wife, teacher, counselor, author, and a far-away-living adult child for decades.

I came from the West to NY for the graduate program in counseling at Teachers College, Columbia U, and have stayed and worked in NY throughout my adult life.

Although far from family, I always knew I would "be there" if my parents needed me. Mother died just short of her 88th birthday; Dad died at 94, and most recently my-i-l, Sr. Advisor R--who lived alone (no caregivers) in her own home--died in June 2015 at 101.

Helping others comes naturally.

As a teenager I was a “Dear Abby” to my friends; later–as a teacher–an untrained counselor to my students. Graduate work and my counseling degree led to a career I’ve loved: counseling high school students and their families. This included–as divorce rates rose in the ’80’s–writing Helping Children of Divorce: a Handbook for Parents and Teachers, published by Schocken Books.

Help! Aging Parents is an extension of my ongoing desire to use my professional training and experience to help others.

About This Blog

Helping parents age well sounds so basic, but it doesn't happen automatically. While we train for the important parts of our lives (childbirth, driving, SATs, jobs), helping parents age well throughout the life cycle is usually on-the-job training--after a health event necessitates fast-forward learning.

Help! Aging Parents is committed to sharing the best information, professional advice, personal experiences and creative ideas to help parents and grandparents age as independently and well as possible until the very end.

* * *

As my parents aged I became aware of a sharp contrast: the ever-present enormous physical and emotional energy of my teenage counselees struggling to develop confidence, assert independence, increase relationships and have fun, while my parents' generation was trying desperately to hold onto these aspects of living.

This led to a disturbing realization: we conscientiously encourage and support younger people who have a full life ahead but--often unwittingly-- diminish and devalue older people. The implications: Younger people feel good about their ability to move forward, while older people can feel "what's the use, I'm old" leading to problems for them and for their children.

This is where we can--and do-- make a difference.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Specific Thanksgiving Gifts Help Parents and Grandparents Age Well

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Aging Parents and Thanksgiving

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