Care of Aging Parents Issue 6 Home Page

It's a Problem in Western Societies Véronique Schlumberger from France emphasizes that the care of elderly parents is an issue we need to think about now. Photo: S. Peters How to care for aging parents is a real problem in our individualist occidental societies because we have lost a sense of solidarity and we don't know how to react to such situations. In France, the nuclear family is the most common life style, so aging persons are used to living alone. Problems arise, however, when they become ill or disabled. Very often their children have not enough place to host them in their house. On the other hand, when the house is big enough to welcome an ill or disabled, aging parent, the family is not primed to do it. Another solution is to maintain the aging parent in his or his or her own home and hire somebody to help him or her all day and sometimes all night at home. This is a really expensive alternative. A third solution is to have the aging parent in a nursing home. Sometimes, it is the best way for aging parents who like companionship and fear loneliness. However, it's often sad for both children and parents. Children feel guilty to abandon their parents and aging parents feel abandoned by their children. Aging parents' care is a real problem in our individualist occidental societies because we have lost a sense of solidarity and we don't know how to react to such situations. We had better think about these problems early, long before we become old and disabled. Taking care of aging and sometimes disabled parents can be such a heavy duty that some adults decide to move their parents to a nursing home, even though they feel really guilty. More international views: Children Become the Caretakers It's Difficult for Aging Parents | Families Share the Responsibility Return to: The Care of Aging Parents | Issue 6 | Home Page  TOPICS Online Magazine - ©1997-2007- Sandy and Thomas Peters - topics.mag@gmail.com