Should your Aging Parents Move into Your Home?
This is a question many of us will contemplate at some point in our lives. According to a study by AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving, nearly 17% of adults living in the U.S. care for someone 50 or older. The benefits and hardships of moving your aging parents in with you drive many to consider alternate solutions, including in-home care or assisted living. You may come to find these solutions preferable for you or your parents.
What Kind of Care Does Your Loved One Need?
This is probably the biggest and most important question because no matter how badly you want to be the one to take care of your loved one doesn’t mean you will have the resources to do so. If your parents are healthy, independent, and require very little care, moving them into your home can be an easy solution. They will have the opportunity to bond and be more involved with their family, which is a priceless opportunity. However, it’s also important to consider how your loved one will spend their time if everyone is gone from the house for over 8 hours a day. They might feel just as lonely as they did in their own home. In that case, a local senior living community might be a nice option that allows them to socialize freely and attend activities while still receiving any care they may need.
If your loved one needs a higher care level and you’re considering moving them into your home, you will need a home health aide to help you manage their care. Even if you work from home, you’ll still need help from time to time. If this is the path you and your family choose, UMC at Homeworks can help you find the perfect caregiver to assist your loved one at home. If in-home assistance feels a little too overwhelming with working full time and taking care of your children, a senior living community that offers assisted living, nursing care, and memory care might be a better choice for your family. Your loved one will still have access to all the activities and socialization they want, but they will be able to receive a higher level of care that can be adjusted as their needs change.
What Level of Care Can You Provide?
When considering a big decision like this, you must be realistic about what care you can provide for your loved one. If you’re working full time, it’s going to be really difficult for you to provide the level of care your loved one needs. Even if your loved one doesn’t require a lot of care at the moment, they might in the future. It’s also important to consider what they will be able to do while you’re away working. Will you need a home health aide? Are you able to get up with them in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom? Are you constantly running around due to a crazy schedule?
Consider Your Relationship With Your Parent
Of course you love your parents, and you want to do anything to help them, but it is important to consider how you’re relationship might change if they move in with you. This arrangement can work incredibly well for some families, and everyone gets along great and is happy to be together. For other families, it can cause a lot of tension and actually make the home a place of stress for both you and your parents. To be clear, if the latter is the case, it’s not due to a lack of love. Some families just get along better with a little bit of distance, and that is nothing to feel shameful about. Don’t feel pressured to move your senior parents in because it’s the “right” thing to do. There is no one right thing, only what works best for you and your family.
UMC at The Shores
If moving your loved one into your home doesn’t work for your family, for whatever reason, a senior living community like UMC at The Shores is there to help. The Shores offers independent lifestyles with support, assisted living, specialized memory care, and long-term care. All services are tailored to each individual’s needs and can be adjusted as their circumstances change. If moving your loved one into your home feels like the right option for your family, but you think you might need some help, UMC Homeworks can help you find the perfect person to help your loved one when you can’t be there.
