Should Your Senior Live Closer to You?

Living far away from your family may be stressful at any age, but it gets increasingly challenging as your parent’s age and some duties become more difficult for them. Caring for an elderly loved one means you spend a lot of time and energy on your parent – but being a long-distance caregiver adds new hurdles. Sometimes long distance doesn’t work depending on what your senior needs. If they need help dressing, going to the bathroom, or other daily things, you will need to consider hiring personal care at home professionals for your senior. You can still manage the caregiving duties from a distance as long as you can visit once in a while.

Personal care at home is a great way to ensure your senior parent is staying healthy while you’re away taking care of your own family. This is a full-time job that can’t always be done over the phone, unfortunately. You could try to encourage your seniors to move closer to you, but they want to stay in the home they’re most comfortable in. However, there are a few key reasons why a senior should move closer to you, and you can mention these reasons to them.

Seniors Can Spend Time With Your Family

Because no one lives forever, you want to spend as many years as possible with elderly loved ones. If you have kids, the opportunity to see their childhood is priceless. They can’t fly every time your children have a game or a performance, but if they reside in the same city as you, they can be there for those priceless moments. This can be one of the first things to mention because it is one of the best reasons a senior can move closer to you.

It Can Add In Safety

Even if a senior has personal care at home helping them out by moving closer to you, they have more people who can respond in emergency situations. It adds an extra layer of safety. When a loved one reaches an age when falling down might result in a lengthy hospital stay, you want to keep them near enough to conveniently check on them on a frequent basis. You’ve probably seen the disturbing sight of someone being stranded on the ground for hours after a fall, but that won’t happen if you’re just a short drive away.

You Can Provide Some of the Care

If you live close by, you may assist with tasks such as cleaning and taking them to doctor’s visits. If they are living on their own in a city where they do not have close relatives, they are likely to be forced to hire someone to assist them with those tasks or depend on charity or the compassion of friends. You can assist them if they move closer to your home, which can also cut the cost of professional care.

Less Traveling

If your loved one ends up in the hospital due to a fall or sickness, you’ll want to be there with them. If they live a few hours (or more) away, it means time away from work, the expense of transportation or airline tickets, and a limited amount of time you’ll be able to spend with them before returning to your home. Traveling to the hospital to see them or to their house to offer care while recovering means you’ll be able to work it into your schedule around all of your other commitments.