Aging of loved ones affects all families, but most especially it affects the women of these families. Wives, mothers, daughters, even aunts and cousins are the folks who must carry the largest share of the burden of caring for aging family members. This can put a huge amount of stress on all members of the family and will require honest conversations and careful planning by all concerned.
While living in Florida I worked part-time at the County Council on Aging. Here I saw first hand the many difficulties experienced by so many families as they learned to cope with the aging of their loved ones. Locating needed services and bringing together a network of support providers is always a challenging task. For those families who must meet this challenge across may miles the burden is even greater.
All families at some point in time will no doubt face some of these challenges. Decisions will need to be made and responsibilities assumed according to each specific need and each individual situation.. Much of this is as it should be, we expect families to care for their own. However, our society is changing and most women are employed outside the home, and many live long distances from their aging loved ones. In these situations family care providing becomes an awesome, never-ending, and time consuming challenge. In today's fast-paced world, our family structures are different from previous generations. Our very mobile society scatters siblings across the globe. Inter-generational families are the exception rather than the rule. Aunts, uncles and grandparents don't live upstairs or just down the street and many families are blended units with significant questions about who is responsible for whom.
These many changes place greater burdens on communities and government agencies to become the care providers. Is this as it should be? That is not the question to be asked, rather we need to ask, what must we do to see that our aging parents, and the loved ones of our neighbors and friends, receive the care they require with respect, honor and dignity when families need help, or are unable, to provide the needed care themselves.
Our world is aging. Baby Boomers are rapidly turning those calendar pages to join the ranks of the over 65 age group. Here in Maine, where I live, we will soon exceed the national average and one in every five residents will be a senior citizen. The challenge is great as this dependent population will become larger than the supporting population of worker age people. Much study and innovative planning will be required to meet this rapidly approaching dilemma.
As families we must not live in denial of the challenges to be met as our loved ones age. Rather, we must do our homework, become knowledgeable, make plans together, and build for those years that are a part of every family's challenge, so that all aging family members may "age well" with dignity and hope.
My name is Jane Avery. I am known as The Wellness Lady. I am a retired dietetic technician, a mentor, a writer, and a professional network marketer. I am associated with the group Mentoring For Free and write articles to assist network marketers build for success. I also write on a variety of health and wellness issues to help folks live better through knowledge and education. Contact me at:
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