Generation after generation aging parents become the responsibility of the following generation. It’s the way life is set up to work. However, just taking care of ourselves is a full time job, let alone a parent or other family member that needs assistance in their later years.
For most, taking care of an aging parent is an act of love, but for many it’s a job they would rather hand over to someone else. Because of the fast, busy and full pace of life, many younger people simply don’t have the time to give. It’s an understandable position to be in, but fortunately or unfortunately, taking care of one another as we get older is part of being a family and a community.
We need to keep in mind when we are in our 3rd, 4th and 5th decades that some day we will be 70, 80 or 90 years old, and will require a helping hand. But what will things be like when we get to that stage of life? I recall a short film I saw a couple of years ago in which a young man pulls up to his father’s house in a chauffeured limousine.
