How To Start “The Talk” Around The Holidays

Having “the talk” with your aging parents about how they intend to live out their older years can be one that, if not approached with care and empathy, can go down a very bad path very quickly. It can be a sensitive topic that your parents may not be ready for, but it is so important as they get older that you and they are on the same page of how they will be cared for and how they can maintain some of their independence as well.

While the holiday season may present an opportunity to have some of these conversations because you are together with your parents to celebrate, they can also be a delicate time to bring something like this up because there is a sense of festiveness in the air and a difficult conversation like this may dampen the spirits of all who are involved.

The good news is that there is a way to bring this conversation up around the holidays without making it awkward or difficult. One very nice and easy way to bring the conversation up is to give a thoughtful gift that could open the conversation door, just slightly. A good idea for a gift would be LED night lights which are a must for anyone who is aging in place. These small LED lights pack a bright punch but can also open the door to the conversation about making your loved ones home safer if they intend to live there for the coming years. The conversation doesn’t have to be heavy or intense, you can keep it light and airy with a discussion of a couple of easy things that you can help with to make the house a safer place for anyone who is going to be living there for a long time to come.

Giving this type of gift is a good entry point into the difficult conversations that you are going to have with your loved one as they age. However, if you are not going to ease into the conversation with a simple gift like this and you just want to jump right into it, you should make sure you do so when there is plenty of time to have the conversation, when no one else is going to be around and when your parent is open to having the conversation. If you bring it up and they balk at it you can gently push one more time and then move on so as not to dampen the holiday spirit. You may return to the conversation after the holidays when all of the visitors have come and gone and your parent might be in a better frame of mind to hear what you have to say.

There is really no easy way to have a conversation like this with your parent, but open and honest communication is critical to the process of preparing your parent for a life of aging in place. If you can have the important conversations with her/him then you can help with preparations and making life comfortable over time. Spending time now, even if it feels early, can have a good effect on your relationship with your parent as they age as well as a good effect on their level of enjoyment in the later years of their life.