Throughout most of your life, you will find that you are being looked after by your parents. And yes, you can be thirty, forty or fifty years old and still have your parents wanting to help you, or feed you, or do things for you. Because once you become a parent, you are always a parent – as you may know. No matter how old you are, your parents will want to take care of you. However, there will come a time where you will need to start to care for them a little more. And it’s the least you can do. Because you will find that they can do less for themselves, and it’s time for you to repay them for all of those years they looked after you! This is why it may be time to have them stay with you. It can be a tough transition. So you need to make sure that you are prepared for it.
Have A Conversation
First of all, it’s best to have a conversation together. You need to decide if this is the right idea, if this is what you both want to do, and get your thoughts and feelings together. That way, you will know if you want to proceed.
Prepare Some Room
You will then need to physically get ready by ensuring that there is some room available for your parent or both of them. This could be as easy as identifying a spare room in the house, or you may want to make some room downstairs or even think about converting an unused space, like the garage, or adding on an addition for the purpose.
Get Some Equipment Together
Then, you’re going to want to see if there’s any equipment that you need to get. Sometimes, your parent will need medical equipment for their healthcare, like these from Drive Medical Store, so that they are able to stay with you. You may even need to add on an accessible bathroom for them to use. Or you may just need to get a guest room together. Either way, you need to sort this all out right away.
Set Expectations
So now that the house is all ready for your parents, you’re going to want to make sure that you’re setting the right expectations here. When you live with your parents, the dynamics change. They need to know their role and you need to set boundaries. If you know that you don’t want them to be too controlling, then you need to say this from the start.
Make Sure They’re Comfortable
But then also, you’re absolutely going to want to make sure that they are comfortable when they are settled in. Don’t just let them move in on the first day and expect them to just get into the swing of your lifestyle. You may need to change your lifestyle in order to accommodate the new member of your household. Yes, there may be growing pains and it can be hard to get used to, but it’s the best way to do it now that they are staying with you.
Brilliant post and something I will definitely keep in mind. You are completely right, once you are a parent your always a parent, that feeling will never ever go away!