As part of the sandwich generation, sometimes it feels truly overwhelming raising our families and caring for our parents. Even when they are still independent sometimes their aging really shows up.
And sometimes it frustrates us, right? We have the same conversations over and over again. Or simple things seem forgotten. We see the phone ring and their number on call display and we think now what? We repeat and repeat and re-listen and re-listen.
I think it is true that we need to reflect on what our parents did for us growing up. The patience they showed day in and day out. The things they had to teach us and willing did many times.
The number of times they had to ask us way too often to brush our teeth, get dressed, clean our rooms etc. And why? Why did they have to repeat themselves to us so many times? Yet now, when they repeat themselves we get frustrated?
They would teach us life lessons but we knew everything and didn’t listen. No matter how many times they said it. And we know that they had to repeat and repeat and re-listen and re-listen to us for decades. So why don’t we do the same for them now?
Now that we are older, most of us appreciate how much we learned from our parents. Or hopefully we have.
And now that they are older, while they don’t want to repeat themselves, they don’t often have a choice. Their mind is aging like their bodies. As ours will one day, too. And if we are blessed with children, our children will be thinking the same thing about us!
Watch this heart wrenching video from a Mom to a daughter seeking her understanding of the aging process. Let us know if you learned something from it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lylaSMwzIxk
