Are we Kicking Grandma to the Curb?
For a number of reasons, I have a real problem with what this post (and the quoted article/news story) say. Not because it isn’t true, but because it is. I don’t think that nursing homes are an ideal situation, that’s for sure, but am I capable of taking care of my parents (all four of them) as they get older? I doubt it.
There is something to be said about the “good ol’ days,” where aged relatives would live in the same home as at least one of their children. I certainly think it would be healthier for society if we weren’t so segregated in our lives according to age bracket (one of the things many churches are also dealing with). However, in cases such as in my family, where one person has Alzheimer’s, it can be a full time job.
I also think that the changing perception of life changes in regards to age have a significant impact on the situation. Take, for example, the fact that 100 years ago, most education ended with the 8th grade, and, frankly, there are questions on those final exams that I couldn’t answer. That person was to become a productive member of society. Now, the expectation is that they will become productive 4 years later, assuming they don’t go to college.
Much of the same can be attached to “retirement”. In that same era, there was no retirement. The modern “golden age of retirement” really means, you’ve saved the money you wasted your life earning, now go spend it, or least that is what far too many retirement salespeople and financial “guides” are trying to sell. Well, if a person is burning their life away to go play at the end of the working era, why would they want to take care of ageing parents. In many ways, it sounds like some kids, “my parents just cramp my style.”
Back to the really hard part, the church not doing what it is called to do. The church has fallen prey to the same mentality as the populace, the government will take care of it! Then there is the whole lawyer thing, and the lawsuits that seem to come with them. What church is willing to take on that kind of litigative burden? What church can afford it? It reminds me of a post I read today, “A law degree only allows you to add friction to the economy…”
Litigation, cramping the style, whatever the reason…this is just not good.