Raise your hand if you’re over 30 and staring down the barrel of your parents getting older, like, as in entering the foray of senior citizenry.
I’m there, you might be too.
Aging parents are an issue adult children are facing down every day and it might be more complicated than any of us imagined. Consideration have to be made regarding when to retire or continue working, healthcare, quality of life, relationship roles shifting, and loneliness too.
Loneliness actually plays a huge role in our quality of life as we age, according to this study from the University of California, San Francisco:
“Loneliness plays a large role in the decline so often associated with old age. The study followed 1,600 adults, with an average age of 71 — despite controlling for socioeconomic status and health, the lonely consistently held higher mortality rates. Nearly 23% of lonely participants died within six years of the study, as opposed to only 14% of those that reported adequate companionship.”
My mom has been my right hand for always, and even more since I’ve had a family and kids of my own. The older we both get, the more I wonder about how I can ever re-pay her for alllll the ways she’s been there for me. Turns out, I simply have to spend more time with her.
Basically it boils down this this: lonely people die faster. Relationships are important. Adulting is hard.
I dunno.
This whole circle of life thing is a TRIP!
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