As life expectancy increases, adult children find themselves caught between the demands of young families and aging loved ones. Your compassionate primer to managing in the middle
LISTEN UP Ask the big questions and be ready to listen: What are your loved one’s wishes for long-term care?
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hen I was growing up in theMidwest there were very few people blessed with living grandparents. In my post-Holocaust generation many had lost all their extended family but even among those who hadn’t suffered such losses a grandparent was something to make note of and appreciate. After all life expectancy back then didn’t usually extend far beyond the mid-60s.
We all envied my friend whose grandparents actually lived with her. Instead I “adopted” an elderly lady who’d been friends with my own grandmother. I called her Bubby Kaplan and I was thrilled when she gave me homemade challah to take home after visiting her.
Baruch Hashem attend a siddur party today and it’s standing room only. Each little girl may have multiple sets of grandparents beaming at her on stage. Great-grandparents rush in after leaving their cars at fire hydrants to get inside in time to hear their nachas receive her first siddur. It’s a whole new normal. Grandparents are active vibrant parts of children’s lives and great-grandparents are the new “older generation.”
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