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Because any festive holidays and events tend to be intense and prolonged, they usually wear out our aging parents and loved ones. We need to plan how to make these events enjoyable and inclusive.
Source: Bart Mindszenthy, mycarejourney.com
Bart also shares 5 tips to make the holiday season more enjoyable for older parents and other aging loved ones. (Reproduced with permission from mycarejourney.com):
1. Reduce ‘wait time’. You can spend a lot of family wait time while meals are being prepared or people are dressing, or getting to a religious ceremony early in order to have good seating. But these are actually tiring times for the elderly. Help them by planning the latest time you can bring them to the event. That way, they don’t have to spend tiring ‘wait time’ doing nothing.
2. Build in ‘down time’. Make sure there’s at least half an hour or hour of rest time between events so your elderly parents can relax and perhaps catch a catnap or at least just have some personal quiet time. Their batteries run down faster now, and some recharge time becomes important.
3. Make meals more manageable. The more courses and the longer time a full meal takes, the more agitated little kids become… and the more aggravated older people become. Elderly parents will find long, drawn out meals fatiguing, even if they pretend to be enjoying themselves. So plan meals to be shorter, or plan strategies to respectfully give them options during a drawn out dinner so they’ll have some rest time.
4. Smart wrap for gift giving. What can be an issue for the elderly is the challenge of opening gifts that are tightly taped and tied with lots of ribbons. With reduced dexterity and maybe some arthritis, older parents and other aging loved ones can be stymied by some of the packages we present. Make it easier—and eliminate the embarrassment of being unable to open a package—by either wrapping their gifts much more loosely, or better yet, by putting them into attractive gift bags, covered with colourful issue paper.
5. Slow down and speak up. The elderly tend to process less quickly and don’t hear as well as once ago. To help them get the most out of your holiday events, slow down how fast you talk or do things, and speak more slowly and louder. Be sure to watch their reactions and body language very carefully for clues about how well they’re staying with you in terms of what’s being done and said.
