Source: FG Trade / Getty
On some level, we all think our parents will always be there. We lead our busy lives. We work. We socialize. We run errands. We remember to squeeze in phone calls or visits to our parents somewhere in the tiny pockets of free time we have between all of that. We may not make as much time for them as we should. We give them what’s left, after everything else. It’s really sad to hear it out loud, but I’ll admit that I’m guilty of it. I think we just sort of believe that, some day, we’ll get around to dedicating more time to them. But, all along, while we’re so busy building our empires, our parents are aging. I mean, we’re all aging, but they were already far ahead of us, so they can go from vibrant, active upper-middle-aged individuals to the senior category fast. Hey, when your parent turns 65, those discounts start rolling in. The senior discounts. They have to make a lot of official changes pertaining to health care and life insurance policies and things like that. Your parent may already be past the 65 mark, or approaching it. Don’t let their aging catch you off guard, because then it can be too late to do some of the things you said you’d do “some day.” Here are things to do with your parents before they get too old.
Source: kupicoo / Getty
Get their stories
They have incredible stories. They’ve done a lot of living. They may have tried to tell you their stories when you were young, and you had no attention span, or you just didn’t appreciate their wisdom. Get their stories now. Ask them about phases of their lives that you weren’t there for. Get the full picture of what they’ve experienced.
