Not just Looking Young but Feel Young too

"Photo courtesy of StockFreeImages.com"

Generally speaking, considered yourself a baby boomer if you are born between the year 1946 to 1964. What are the concerns of baby boomers? Other than aging happily, looking young and feeling young are also the items on their list.

Baby boomers may not have a huge corner on the market for staying youthful but they certainly have set a high standard for creating a wide range of products and services to attend to anti-aging need.  The quest for delay aging in baby boomers has resulted in an explosion of profits in the cosmetic and plastic surgery markets.  It’s easy to criticize the desire of baby boomers to want to picture themselves as youthful as possible.  But it goes a lot deeper than that.

It doesn’t take a lot of research or analysis to see that baby boomers grounded their identities in the youth movement of the 1960s and 1970s.  There was basically no youth movement before the boomer generation.  But in the 1960s, when youth culture virtually took over American and the world, everything changed for baby boomers and this change was never reversed. The desire to put age on hold and worship everything about being young had infiltrated the culture even as the boomer generation moved into middle age and now is on the verge of creating the largest retirement generation ever.  

The worship of youth in baby boomers is not just about looking sexy and dreading the physical changes of growing older. The baby boomer’s love about the concept of youth has to do with the idealism and the commitment to causes that is common in young people.  The desire to change the world and to be a force to make mankind better was part of what made the new youth culture in the 1960s so unique.  And because those values are commendable, we really can’t completely condemn the desire by baby boomers to stay youthful.

So the quest to stay young often manifests itself in cosmetic attempts to look young.  We can almost understand the appeal.  We all like to look good.  But the real source of youth is not just a tight butt and abs and smooth, wrinkle free skin. The phrase “you are as young as you feel” is often used by baby boomers as an excuse to behave younger than they are. But it can also reflect that an inner youthfulness can be fueled by a youthful outlook on life. All these accompanied with health eating and exercise will allow boomers to live well into their senior years.

It is when baby boomers combine those elements of “inner youthfulness’ with their cosmetic efforts to stay young that they really do retain much of their youth beyond what their age would report. Have you ever met an elderly man or woman who is so full of life and fun that they leave you feeling older than they are.  The sparkle in the eye, the curiosity about everything life has to offer and that optimism and idealism that you commonly associate with teenagers is truly inspiring when it is being expressed by a senior citizen.

This is the real youth movement that the baby boomer generation is aspiring. It is more than just dying the hair or using Botox and wrinkle creams. It is about being strong role models to the youth coming up. They don’t give up on their dreams, idealism and excitement in living. They will thrive no matter what age they are. And if that is the legacy of the baby boomer generation, it’s a fine value to leave behind for future generations to enjoy.

Also read this ebook : Ulitimate Baby Boomer Guide to find out what are the minor changes that our boomers should make in order to improve our personal well-being and lead them to healthy life, prosperity and longevity. 

This ebook can be downloaded for free at our Solution to Age Gracefully website.

Aging Parents and Role Reversal

"Photo courtesy of StockFreeImages.com"

There is no way to reverse time. From the moment you step into the society to pursue a career. You may realise that your parents are no longer young. Once you settle down and have you own family, you take over the role of parenting of your own children. Before you know it, children are no longer the only parenting role you have, care and decision-making for your own parents also fall under you. It is not easy for anyone to pick up the role of care giving of aging parents or elderly relatives. Similarly, role reversal for aging parents is painful experience too. It might not anything you are prepared for or expected would happen to you. If you need a dose of growing up, elder care will certainly make it happen whether you're ready or not!

Now that your role has reversed, you have to make decisions for yourself and your aging parent. What will be best for them without altering your life too drastically. How do you keep up to the pace and ultimately please everyone around you?  You are not alone in life, you have a family, significant other, a career to think about. You want to balance everything to keep everyone happy and life as normal as possible. Think again! Those once a week visits or daily phone calls aren’t enough anymore. Your parent needs care, the real kind. Such cares involve making sure they eat and that they take their medications, accompany them for quarterly check-up, make sure they are financially sound and that they don’t become a victim of fraud so on. 

How do you deal with this situation without alienating every member of your family? If you have siblings, there should be a discussion before any decision is made. Normally, when you are the one in charge of caring for your aging parent, you may need to make a bold suggestion to manage the wealth of your parent as well. Caring for aging parent can be costly and long term responsibility. Especially, when your aging parents need in-home care service, or even live in assisted living home. If your parents have accumulated some wealth over the year or have monthly income from pension, retirement account or insurance, you may need to ask to utilise this amount to settle some of the bill for the care giving. If you aging parents are not well to be financially, you may need you sibling to chip up an amount monthly. Whatever you intend to do, make sure that all these bills have proper records to ensure transparency and to prevent disputes with siblings later on.

Start with their doctor. Have an appointment to discuss the faltering health of your beloved parents. You can also check with the doctor where their health care is a concern. A session with the doctor, you may be able to determine the types of help and living style your parent current status require. Keep asking until you have the best situation for all concerned.  

Please bear in mind that sending aging parents to an assisted living home is not the only solution. It may be as simple as an aide visiting once or twice a day to help with showering, dressing, meals and medication.  Their health may need more than that and the visiting nurse or health care personal may be required. The keyword for elder care at home is “safety”. If safety at home does not meet level required, do some home modifications until you are satisfy that elder home are safe for their current situation. Home modifications don’t have to be a total overhaul which will be costly unless your budget allow for it. Home modification can be done stage by stage. Consider which are the more pressing concerns now and tackle them first. The level of safety can to be accessed from time to time to keep up to the need of your aging parent as time goes by. 

It may take you some time to uncover everything available to help with this elder care process but trust me, it will worth it for the many years of elder care it might stretch out to be. It is best to discuss with your parents earlier on all their health and medical concerns, financial and personal situations before that day arrives.

When parents are old the best thing you can give them is you. Spend quality time instead of stress time. Have them over for a day and dinner instead of needing to pawn them off to someone else totally. You are not in this alone. The resentment builds if you do this alone and there are many really good in-home care facilities to take some of that burden off your shoulders.

Visit my website at www.helpaginggracefully.com to discover some of the useful products that can assist you with elder care.