So I\u2019m not a gerentologist. I don\u2019t even play one on TV. But this is what I see on a personal level: <\/p>\n
my parents live in the home that they raised their family in. Two stories. The house is somewhat chaotic \u2014 it could use a major de-cluttering, but we (that is, the children) haven\u2019t yet gotten as far as intervening, though I\u2019m sure that\u2019ll happen soon. Even though they\u2019re comparatively young, as aging parents go (age 74), they struggle to go up the stairs, and dad has now fallen a number of times, and mom isn\u2019t strong enough to help him get up, so it falls to a neighbor or to the paramedic. <\/p>\n
We worry, the three of us kids. All of us live out of town, and it falls to our periodic visits to deal with yardwork, general home repairs, even cleaning the bathroom, since neither of them can get down on their hands and knees. <\/p>\n
And Dad\u2019s said, \u201cI won\u2019t leave this house until they carry me out.\u201d We wonder, has he changed his mind in the meantime, or would he just get upset if we suggested it to him? <\/p>\n
You know how seniors are running marathons and other extraordinary achievements? I think it deludes us into thinking that no one gets old and frail, at least not until they\u2019re \u201cold old\u201d \u2014 I certainly never expected to be worrying about my parents at this age. <\/p>\n
My in-laws got out while the getting was good. They left their house five years ago, moved to a condo with an elevator, a basement parking garage, a generously-sized balcony, and they haven\u2019t regretted it. <\/p>\n
So when I think of all the effort that\u2019s put into helping seniors \u201cage in place,\u201d I just want to say, \u201cSTOP!\u201d Can\u2019t we instead spend a bit of time convincing seniors that the \u201cfamily home\u201d is just a thing, an object, which shouldn\u2019t have such a deep attachment that it harms one\u2019s quality of life? I\u2019ve got to think, too, that \u201cdownsizing\u201d at a comparatively younger age, when it can be felt to be a free choice, and when there\u2019s plenty of time to accustom oneself to the new neighborhood and daily routines, is a better choice than waiting until the situation is desparate. <\/p>\n
I know, this is a sample size of two. And there are further issues even after seniors move to a condo as my in-laws have, when they reach the age where they need housework help, Meals on Wheels, etc., and then a step further to more basic daily assistance. But we have to change our attitudes if we\u2019re to be able to cope with ever-increasing numbers of elderly who\u2019ll need more than just annual \u201cfall clean-up\u201d service days by the church youth group. <\/p>\n
ANOTHER THOUGHT: there\u2019s at least one very tangible way in which we build an incentive to stay in the \u201cfamily home\u201d and penalize downsizing: the \u201csenior freeze\u201d in property tax assessments. Stay in your too-large home and see your property taxes dwindle to nothingness relative to your neighbors. Move and lose the hard-won tax break. Why don\u2019t we swap this out for relocation grants, to help with the not-inconsiderable cost of moving?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So I\u2019m not a gerentologist. I don\u2019t even play one on TV. But this is what I see on a personal level: my parents live in the home that they raised their family in. Two stories. The house is somewhat chaotic \u2014 it could use a major de-cluttering, but we (that is, the children) haven\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n