5 Reasons Why Caring for Your Aging Parent Matters

If you have parents who are still alive as you get older, you will probably want to care for them if you can. They may need help with certain tasks, and you likely feel a responsibility to help them. We’ll talk about some reasons why caring for an aging parent matters.

You Set an Example for Your Kids

Setting an example for your children is one reason you should care for an aging parent if you have the power to do so. You probably hope that when you’re older, your kids can take of you in the same way if you need it.

Kids learn by example. If they see you caring for your aging parents, they should remember that and do the same thing when you’re in your later years.

You should create an aging parent care checklist and show your kids how to do it. That checklist can contain what medications to give your parents, when to take them to doctor appointments, and what days you might stop by to see them and check on them.

You Love Your Parents and Want to Show Them That

Presumably, you also love your parents and want to demonstrate that when they get older. If they have physical or cognitive decline, caring for them is a loving act. Maybe they are still mentally sharp enough to appreciate it, or maybe not, but in either case, you want to prove your love for them.

It’s one thing to say that you love someone, but caring for them when they’re no longer capable of caring for themselves shows them more eloquently than your words ever could. This is a way to bring you and your parents closer together near the end of their lives.

It’s a Long and Time-Tested Tradition

When you care for your aging parents, you’re also taking part in a tradition that has existed for thousands of years. You show respect for that tradition when you do things like cook meals for your parents, clothe them, bathe them, or do anything else they need that’s in your power to do.

When you care for an aging parent, you may feel the weight of previous generations on your shoulders. You know that you’re doing something noble. Just as your parents cared for you when you were a child, now you can do the same thing for them, completing the circle.

You Can Endear Yourself to Them

Maybe you might not have had the greatest relationship with a parent. Perhaps you feel like they didn’t understand you as much as you would have liked. It’s not as though every parent-child relationship is close and loving.

You might still take care of an aging parent if you want them to leave you something. They might have money or property that they need to leave to someone, and if you care for them, they may leave that to you.

Taking care of your aging parents may be more transactional than because of your love for them, but that’s not always a bad thing. If you care for them and they agree to leave you a house or some other inheritance when they pass away, that might help you. You both get something you want and need if love and good feelings alone don’t prompt you to act.

They Can Pass on Their Wisdom

You might decide that you want your older parent to move in with you. That might be the most prudent move if you can’t afford to put them in a nursing home or assisted living facility. Also, you might understand that you can care for them better than strangers could.

If so, you might spend some time with them in their life’s later stages, and they can pass on any accumulated wisdom from their life during that time. Maybe they can show you how to do things now that you never learned as a child.

Often, the older generations have certain skills that the younger generations do not have. If your kids are still living with you, your aging parents might show them how to do things like changing a tire or changing a car’s oil. They can show them how to fix things around the house, or they can simply tell you and your family stories about things that happened to them.

If you think about it, you will likely come up with many more reasons to care for an aging parent.