Helping Our Parents Age Gracefully
Ming: Co-living is allowing our parents' generation to age gracefully, in a home which they know, with the family they love.
There are three areas of co-living which act as guidelines as we explore this space.
Caring - It’s about enabling adult children to care for their aging parents in a setting that is most comfortable for them.
Shared Experience - Family co-living is being able to continue to share in each family's life amongst all the generations.
Interdependence - It means that families are able to have our independence with the ability to choose where they are independent and dependent on each other.
Why do I care about it?
I see Togethering as something my own family will shortly face. Unfortunately, the reality of age is that health starts to deteriorate and my parents are no exception.
Both my mother and father have health issues and while they do their best to take care of themselves, you can only prolong the inevitable for so long. My father has had many eye surgeries in the past few years with his vision constantly getting worse. I always feel like we're just one incident away from him going blind and I would like to be prepared if that does happen. My mother has also undergone major surgeries in recent years, and I’m left with many questions on what the future brings. How will my parents' independence be affected? What will my family need to do to support and help? How will this impact their mental health? I certainly don't have the answers, but I recognize that my family and I will need to support my parents both physically and mentally through this process.