The Aging Family

“Whatever problems your family is facing, whatever you must do to solve them, the beginning and the end of the solution is charity, the pure love of Christ.” (-Dieter F Uchtdorf) You will get at a certain point in your life, as a parent, that you will need to tend and meet the needs of not only your children, but your parents and your spouse’s parents as well. Have you ever thought about what sort of experience that is going to be for you and your spouse? Or if you are not yet married, your future spouse? Thinking about it, that time period that you will experience with your spouse will be a period of much stress and responsibility. It is hard enough having to raise a child, but to have to take care of your parents as well will be a tough challenge. Aging parents are not able to take care of themselves due to health concerns. This is normal. To some individuals, this may seem like a burden, but in hindsight, if your parents were able to take care of you, then you can most certainly take care of them. I would not recommend putting your parents in a home instead. Personally, I would just not feel comfortable that decision. I know it would be hard, but they are my parents and I know they would do the same for me because they have. During this time as well, children are developing and getting into their adolescent years. A great time for all parents. It’s something that I am sure they look most forward to. Typically, parents will face many challenges during this stage. They have to understand that this requires much patience and understanding. I am sure this will be difficult because at the same time they will be dealing with aging parents at the same time. But after all these things happen, what happens to parents once the children are all grown up and their parents end up dying? Obviously, this will be a completely different situation than what they are normally used to. They may feel a sense of feeling uncomfortable or emptiness. Why is this? Well a rational explanation for this sense of discomfort may be because the parents had gotten so used to meeting the needs of those around them that they forget what married life was like when they did not have those concerns or responsibilities. Couples may even end up having marital problems or troubles with the relationship. They had spent so much time spending time caring for others that they never truly furthered the relationship and were not able to connect as much as they could have done. I feel like many couples may not realize this, and for those couples that do not end up realizing this because end up losing interest in their partner. And as a result, they may end up divorcing even at an older age. On the other hand, some couples might still end up developing the relationship without even realizing. We each of trials in our lives. Why might be the reason for this? Trials and bad situations in general help us grow individually but in this case, they help us grow as a couple. When we are in the service of others, we often end up benefitting more ourselves than the people or person we tried helping. Although unfair as this may seem, it is a clear indication that is important to help other people in time of need. God oversees all of our attempts and knows we try our best at times. Never lose sight of the things and people that matter the most cause you might end up losing yourself because of it.