Much is said about the generation gap that separates young people from their parents, but very little is said about all the conflicts that also arise with the generation before ours. However, the proportion of older people is increasing every day, and their needs and attitudes must be understood, so that daily life is more positive for everyone.
We all tend to immediately think of misunderstanding problems that arise between parents and teenage children. We believe that it all ends there, since those differences seem to disappear when children grow up, and parents and children relate as adults. It's false! Those differences fade, but there are others: those that arise with the generation before ours. Always, between two successive generations, there is diversity in the appreciations and approaches of life.
Although this time it is the children who consider their older parents incorrigible, the conflicts between them are, in essence, the same that arise between adolescents and adults: lack of communication, and lack of understanding of the respective problems.
When people get older, many are the ones who feel lonely, financially insecure, and misunderstood and even abandoned, by their children and grandchildren.
Really, older parents are not neglected because their children are financially constrained, or because they have busy lives raising their own families. Those problems, of course, exist, but they are secondary, and can be solved or, at least, partially solved.
What really matters is the proper mental attitude that the interested parties must have, both the elderly parents and their children as adults. In most cases, children do not completely neglect their parents. This happens in rare cases, but the barrier that prevents communication is enormous, and the elderly are left "for impossible."
We have stopped understanding them, somewhere along the way, and we no longer bother to establish new, truly meaningful links with them. The main problems faced by adults with parents who have already reached an advanced age are emotional conflicts, problems of physical disability, psychological problems, and others ...
From the day we are born, we get used to seeing in our parents the indestructible pillars on which the entire family rests. They are always there when we need them, offering us moral support, giving us advice, comforting our pain, offering us their protection against the threats of the world, sometimes solving our financial entanglements, and taking care of themselves, while also taking care of us.
Few of us reconsider and realize that our parents are getting older. And when we do, we still see them as invulnerable in the face of time, and we believe they are fully capable of continuing to care for each other. Even though we are married with children, we always think that our parents are still there for us, for when we need them. They will always be loving, cheerful, and willing to sacrifice their own interests to share with us. And so independent that they will still be fully capable of managing their own complicated lives, without having to turn to us.
And, indeed, that's the way it is ... one day we discover, to our surprise, that our parents are unable to solve, in an efficient way, the problems that arise in daily life.Sometimes it turns out that their income is insufficient, and other times it is certain ailments of age that affect their health. But the reality that amazes us is in understanding that they cannot continue alone, and that they need our help ... until they reach the end. When we understand this, we react to our parents' needs with concern, and sometimes even a little guilt and fear.
With a spirit of tolerance, flexibility and understanding and large doses of generosity and goodwill, a harmonious coexistence can be achieved, even in the midst of the most difficult circumstances, without the need for one or more of the family members to make unbearable sacrifices.🎉🎉🎉
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