Having your elderly parent living with you can be highly beneficial for all of you. For your parent, being in your home with you and your family ensures that your aging parent is close to you, getting care and support at all times. For your family, this helps to support closer relationships. This arrangement can also provide financial benefits for all of you and allow your parent to help you with your children, if desired. When considering having your parent living with you, however, it is important to also recognize that you will need to set and maintain boundaries. These boundaries will help to protect your relationship and your personal health and well-being while also ensuring that your loved one gets all of the care that they need as they age in place.
Use these tips to help you set care boundaries with your parent when they come to live with you:
- Ensure they know when you are available for care. While they should know that you are there for them at any time if there is an emergency, they should understand that in normal circumstances you are available only at certain times of day. This ensures that you still have time to take care of yourself and your other needs during the day.
- Know that you are there for care, not servitude. You want to do as much for your parent as they need to make sure that they are living the quality of life that they deserve, but that does not mean that you should be doing everything for them. Encouraging them to do things for themselves is an important part of supporting independence and ongoing functioning.
- Know their contribution. When you bring your parent to live in the home with you, you might have ideas about them helping around the house or helping take care of your children. This, however, is not necessarily a given. They might not see themselves helping you in these ways and would prefer to primarily stay to themselves. Talk to them about your expectations as well as theirs and make sure that both of you understand how this arrangement will work so that you do not get into uncomfortable situations.
Starting elder care for your aging loved one can be one of the best decisions that you can make for them in course of your care journey. Introducing an elderly home care services provider into their care routine is not about taking their independence away from them or even not taking on their care yourself. Instead, the highly personalized care services of such a provider are designed to address your elderly loved one’s individual needs, challenges, and limitations in a way that helps them to manage these issues effectively while also pursuing the highest quality of life possible as they age in place. This can include assisting with activities of daily living, companionship to boost mental and emotional health, and providing safe and reliable transportation to help them do the things that they need and want to do for greater independence in their later years. In your role as their family caregiver, this type of care acts as a support for the care that you give, filling any existing care gaps, ensuring someone is with your parent even when you are not able to be, and easing your stress for an improved relationship and lifestyle for both of you.
If you are considering hiring elder care in Wooster, OH, call the caring staff at Central Star Home Health at (419) 610-2161. Providing services for families in Mansfield, Lexington, Bellville, Mt. Gilead, Loudonville, Crestline, Galion, Shelby, Ashland, Wooster, and the surrounding areas.
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