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By Carol August 8th, 2011
Mid-Twentieth Century psychologists finally began to catch up with Shakespeare when they started to explore the idea that people over the age of 21 continue to develop psychologically and emotionally. We learned that just as children and adolescents grow and change, so do adults, at least until about age 50 or so. At that point, theorists—not having gained any great age themselves for the most part—decided that that nothing much happened in later life except, of course, the mental and physical changes that we can all observe in old folks. Even Shakespeare didn’t have a very positive vision of old age.
By the time these theorists did enter old age themselves, they—having developed as the elderly do—were no longer interested in talking about psychology or theories or–as in the case of Erik Erikson–anything at …
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By Carol August 2nd, 2011
Many of us who worked to change sexist and racist attitudes in our younger years are finding ourselves confronting another form of prejudice now as we reach retirement age. Ageism clouds perceptions of the elderly and causes us to fear growing older. We have been taught to equate great age with disability and loss of competence–period. We tend to view the elders we know who are “still” sharp and active as lucky exceptions to the rule.
Last winter on my excursions around town I began to notice that now and then a tailgater in an over-sized pickup truck would pull out into the oncoming traffic lane and roar around me screeching up to the next stop light– where I would overtake him. This is a rare though not unheard of driving experience, but after …
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By Bill June 8th, 2011
Caregiving Information
Monday evening I attended a public meeting at one of Denver’s branch libraries concerning proposed budget cuts for our library system. The great recession has hurt Denver’s sales tax revenue, forcing budget cuts for all City operations for the last three years. The library has reduced hours at all its branches, with most branches open only four days per week with open hours also reduced.
This year’s budget has cuts continuing, resulting in the library’s operations falling below minimum standards. There are several options to deal with the reductions, including closing several branch libraries. The most appealing option is for the voters approving creating a special library district with a property tax mill levy amounting to about $60.00 per year for a $200,000 home. This would provide a more stable funding …
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By Carol April 12th, 2011
This year April is a month of celebration at our house. We are celebrating Bill’s retirement and the start of his post-retirement job at Four Mile Historic Park. Yesterday we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. And April is also the month we celebrate one year of writing Inside Aging Parent Care. As part of the celebration I decided to republish one of our most viewed posts from last spring:
Gerotranscendence–Good News for Caregivers and Their Aging Parents By Carol May 23rd, 2010 Part Three of Three
Learning about the theory of gerotranscendence changed everything for me as a caregiver of an aging parent. In his book Gerotranscendence, Lars Tornstam talks about problems the mental set of younger caregivers can create when they are trying to understand the very old. We have been taught …
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By Carol March 8th, 2011
Reviewing The Unexpected Caregiver by Kari Berit
Many books and articles emphasize how important it is to keep the lines of communication open between caregivers and aging parents. In particular there has been a lot of talk lately about having “The Talk,” usually characterized as an ongoing discussion about end of life issues and preferences. We can also find a lot of advice about how to discuss an elder’s driving problems or inability to live alone without help. But what about the day to day conversational sharing that is a part of the good relationship necessary for productive discussions about the big problems?
I was surprised to lose a formerly easy give and take with my dad when dementia crept into the equation. As he became more confused, I found that Dad also became …
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