Joni was getting extremely frustrated with her younger sister, Melanie. Melanie lived on the other side of the country from both Joni and their mother. Joni was there every day, supporting their mother, helping her with a variety of activities of daily life as her elder care needs grew, and seeing the challenges that were mounting with each passing month.
Their father had passed away several years ago, and in the time since their mother was facing mounting health challenges of her own. It was affecting her mobility, balance, and ability to do many things on her own.
Joni knew that assisted living for elder care would be the better option, but her mother hadn’t seen it that way. Not yet. Joni didn’t realize until recently that Melanie was talking to their mother and telling her not to consider assisted living. She had been filling her head with all sorts of notions about what it was and what their mother would be giving up if she agreed to move in.
Was Melanie being manipulative?
This happens time and time again across the country and even around the world. One or more siblings or family members live at a distance and don’t see the day-to-day rigors of trying to support their aging loved one. It may fall on their other parent, a close family friend, or their own brother and sister.
That’s what was happening with Melanie. She didn’t realize just how much things had changed with her mother since the last time she visited, which was a year ago. Joni was trying to convince her that assisted living with be the right elder care option for her moving forward, but Melanie had the wrong idea of what assisted living was.
Joni couldn’t convince Melanie without information about assisted living for elder care.
Too often in today’s environment, people have plenty of opinions, but they rarely dig in to get the facts. That’s what happened with Melanie. She had an idea of what assisted living was, but she never researched it for herself.
Neither did Joni. Not at first. She knew one of their mother’s friends was in assisted living and seemed to be happy. That was about the extent of her knowledge regarding assisted living and other elder care options.
Joni was getting frustrated, especially when she learned that every time she would bring up the topic of assisted living her mother would call Melanie and Melanie would tell her not to even think about it. That made her angry. “She’s not even here to see the struggle,” she told her husband one evening. To which he responded, “How can you convince her?”
She realized she couldn’t convince anyone, not even herself if the roles had been reversed. She didn’t know anything about assisted living other than platitudes and basic common knowledge. So, she reached out to a couple of local assisted living communities, scheduled a couple of tours, and began researching it.
Armed with this great deal of information, she was able to show both Melanie and her mother that it’s about living life to the fullest, not about giving up. Everyone ages, but convincing a family member that it’s time for something more may not be easy, but with the right information, you can make a better argument in the affirmative.
If you or an aging loved one is considering a move to an Assisted Living Facility for Elder Care Services in Marietta GA please contact the caring staff at Woodland Ridge today. 770-431-7055
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