How To Get Involved In Your Elderly Parents’ Retirement Community
Just because your elderly parents are getting older, doesn’t mean that you can’t continue to spend quality time with them. There are countless ways that you can enjoy time with your parents as they get older. One of the best ways you can stay close with your elderly parents is to involve yourself in their life on a routine basis. Retirement communities can be more fun than you may think and getting to know your parents’ community and who they are friends with can help to make your bond with them even stronger, alongside of course, enriching their own lives along the way too.
Before you dive into involving yourself in your parents’ retirement community, however, it’s highly recommended that you have a chat with them first. It’s important that you tell them about your intentions so that your sudden involvement isn’t alarming or feels at all like an intrusion. Of course, you can be sure that when you tell them the news they will be nothing short of overjoyed and will immediately begin to look forward to spending more time with you and to introducing you to their own community.
Let’s take a look at just a few ways that you can involve yourself in your elderly parents’ retirement community in a meaningful way.
Connect With Other Families
On family days, your parents’ elderly friends may also often be accompanied by their children, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles or other family members. Make a point of introducing yourself to your parents’ friends’ families to help break down those barriers and to start forging strong relationships with others in the community. Chances are high that you’ll have plenty in common with the other children visiting their elderly relatives. And while you might begin reaching out for the sake of your parents, you may even discover a few meaningful friendships for yourself in the process as well.
Take Part In Events
There are always events in the community that are targeted towards elderly people. If your parent is going to an event, offer to tag along and join in. The amount of involvement you can have will depend on the type of event it is.
For example, if you’re going to an over seventies disco, you can definitely bust a few moves on the dance floor. On the other hand, if it’s a one hundred meter race, you had better sit on the sidelines and cheer from a distance. If you feel that your elderly loved one’s weekly routine is lacking an activity that you could potentially do together, then why not have a chat about potential hobbies or leisure activities that you may both like to try? Taking part in these events with your elderly parents is not just a great way to have new experiences, but a surefire way to ensure that you maintain regular, enriching contact with your loved ones and their wider community.
Bring A Pet To Visit
If your elderly parent regularly meets with a retirement community why not bring along your dog or cat just to mix things up a little? Petting a dog or cat can be very therapeutic for older people and spending time with animals has even been proven to lower blood pressure, reduce stress,and help to increase mood. This can also be a unique opportunity for the retirement community to spend some time around an animal that they may not have access to otherwise. Spending time with a cat or dog can bring back happy memories and provide companionship not just for your elderly loved one, but for other residents too.
Talk With Their Friends
It should go without saying but if you really want to get involved in your parents’ retirement community, you need to get to know their friends. Getting to know their families, as we mentioned above, is always a great way to introduce yourself and will give you something to talk about right away. Make the time to introduce yourself and get to know your parents’ friends. Sit down and have a cup of coffee with them rather than just briefly mentioning the weather as you pass. Understanding your parents’ friends will help you to get a better understanding of what’s going on in their lives and in their retirement community in general, moving forward.
Organise An Event
Assuming your parents are okay with you doing so, why not organise an event for their retirement community? You could read aloud, watch a movie together, or cook and eat a meal as a group. On the other hand, if you have some special expertise or a hobby you are passionate about, perhaps you could have a go at hosting a class and teaching them some new tricks? Organising an event is an amazing way to not only connect with your parents’ retirement community but also to provide a meaningful experience to both residents as well as staff. If things go well and everyone enjoys the event, you could even make it a regular feature in their calendar in the future, giving everyone something positive to look forward to.
Find A Way To Get Involved In Your Elderly Parents’ Retirement Community
There are countless ways that you can spend more time with your parents and get involved in their retirement community in a meaningful way. However you choose to get involved, make sure that you take the opportunity to spend as much quality time with your elderly parents and enjoy making amazing memories together.