First-time parents often lament the challenges of rearing a child. “Being a parent doesn’t come with an instruction manual,” we often hear. How true that is.
Eventually, though, it’s the kids who find themselves looking for manuals of their own — navigating adolescence, landing a job, finding love, and all of life’s other dilemmas. Eventually, the quest for instructions comes full circle, and adult children must learn how to care for their aging parents.
A recent editorial in The Guardian paints a rather bleak picture of what that experience is like — much bleaker, frankly, than what many people go through. There is no doubt, though, that adjusting as your parents grow old simply isn’t easy.
“There are classes for the mothers of babies,” the Guardian columnist writes, “but there’s no helping with your parents getting older, the super-loud clock.”
That isn’t entirely true. While there is no way to predict the future or fully prepare yourself for it — and while the experience is inevitably trying at times — there are steps you can take to excise some of the frustration and uncertainty of your parents’ later years.
As Phoenix elder law attorneys2, we work with adult children and their aging parents every day. From insurance and Medicaid issues to nursing home contracts and long-term care planning, we are here to help make the road ahead of you easier to travel.
You and your parents deserve a bright and happy future. You can have one. Let us help. Call today.
