As you get older, you may notice the age showing in your parents as well. If your parents have officially qualified for the senior citizen discount at local restaurants, it may be time for you to start considering how to help them age gracefully and stay healthy. By learning different ways to help your senior parents stay active, you can keep them on their toes and in their homes for many more years to come.
Go on Walks with Your Parents
It’s easy to tell your parents to take care of themselves and continue to nag them to do so, but it’s more effective if you practice what you preach. If you live close by, offer to go on walks with them to enjoy each other’s company. You’ll give them crucial socialization, get them outside, and you’ll both get a refreshing walk out of the activity—a win-win for everyone.
If you don’t live close enough to go on walks with your parents, try calling them on your cellphone or teaching them how to video chat while you’re both on a walk for a similar experience. Share pictures of your walks with each other and talk about how they went.
Encourage Them To Join Clubs
When you get older, it becomes more difficult to make new friends and socialize with new people. Do your best to convince your parents to join clubs that are relevant to their interests, whether it’s a specific activity or a general senior club. Once they become a part of that club, they might decide to take up a leadership role or branch out into more clubs as they meet new friends.
Safely Keep Them on the Road
You may be the best judge of whether your parents are fit to continue driving or not. While the goal is to keep them driving for as long as possible so they can maintain their independence, there may be some roadblocks that get in the way of them driving safely. Encourage them to keep driving to places so their driving skills don’t get rusty. If one or both of your parents have a disability that doesn’t fully affect their ability to drive, consider learning ways to make driving easier for them that they might not do on their own.
Stay Optimistic
Once parents reach a certain age, they may start sounding sad about their age or pessimistic about the future. They may start talking in finalities, even if they’re nowhere close to the end of their life. One of the best ways to help your senior parents stay active is to be their ray of sunshine when they feel helpless or feel bad for asking for help. You can be realistic, but it’s important that they don’t let those negative fears take over so they can continue living out the rest of their sunset years in a healthy way.