Five Steps to Taking Over Care of Your Parents

More and more these day children are taking over the care of their parents. It’s the new wave of Senior Care in the country. There has been lots of research that showed it was better for grandparents and seniors to be around family instead of in nursing home and senior communities. Growing up in Trinidad I can tell you that most senior citizens lived at home with one of their children. It was rare that they living in a nursing home facility. It was more about the culture than anything, we didn’t have many there. It was surprising to me that people had their elderly living in a facility when we first moved to the U.S.

Now that I’m getting older and my parents are also aging, I’ve been thinking about how we would take care of them as they age. Putting them in a nursing home doesn’t seem bad at all, and it’s something that could work and is probably the best option for a lot of families. For us, I think we would come together as siblings and have them stay together on their own as long as possible. If you’re in the process of taking over your parents care, it can be overwhelming and challenging, especially if you’re not prepared. So I wanted to share these five steps to take over your parents care.

Gather All Their Finances

The first step to taking over the care of your parents to get a hold of all their finances and make sure you know about all their current financial obligations. You want to make sure you can set up all payments and make arrangements to have monthly bills forwarded to your home. Be sure to keep track of their monthly bills and spending. Check for any suspicious activity since seniors are usually prime targets for scams.

Turn Off Utilities and Services

If your parents are living on their own, make sure you turn off all their utilities and stop services they receive at their home. It may seem like it’s obvious but depending on the conditions on which your parents are moving into your home, it may be one the of last things you consider. Sometimes it’s at least a month or two later when people finally realize that utilities are still running at a previous address.

Properly Prepare for the Move

When preparing to move your parents into your home, it may be a good idea to consider hiring a mover to help with all the heavy lifting. There are several great options like https://www.mybekins.com/ that will take care of all the moving and packing. Host an estate moving sale to get some cash for the bigger items in the home if you don’t plan to take them with you or even a yard sale. You can also store items in storage your parents want to hold on to for sentimental reasons.

Keep Them Busy

Depending on the circumstances of your parents moving into your home, they may want to still be busy and not feel like they are just sitting around all the time. Keep them busy by giving them small duties to help around the house. Simple tasks like helping out with the kids, chores, or even shopping for groceries. Those simple tasks make a difference in helping them feel helpful and independent. You can click here to learn more about ways they can assist with the kids learning and education.

Make Them Feel At Home

Now that your parents are living in your home, make sure you find a way to make them feel at home. It’s easy to add personal touches in their room and around the house to make them feel at home and comfortable in their new space. Remind them it’s their home now and don’t treat them as visitors. Incorporate them into your family traditions, you can end add some of their personal traditions and routines into your family schedule to make them even more at home.

Taking over your parents care can seem daunting and overwhelming but as long as you are both on the same page, things will start running smoothly before you know it. If you are caring for an ill parent, don’t be afraid to outsource some help with either an in-home nurse or aide.