What happens to childless LMC/working class people when they get old?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know but I hope I die before I become a burden. I have 1 son and I don’t think he is going to take care of me (judging by his 9 yo personality).
I hope there is assisted suicide by then too.

He'll grow up. Give it time.

But I do hope for an assisted suicide option too.

Everyone says this, but how many people would really have the nerve to go through with it?

Take a tour of a medicade facility where you are sharing a room and left to die in a bed 22 hours a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So are people supposed to have children in the hopes of having someone 'check up' on them when they're 85? It makes more sense to remain childless and use all that money that one saved and put it towards a nursing home or hospice should the time come. Unless you're Asian, expecting your children to be at your beck and call when they're thousands of miles away is naive. It's also unfair to burden adult children with eldercare when they didnt ask to be born.

Yes. Why do you think people had litters of children in the past? For labor and care. Traditionally, the youngest daughter was supposed to stay unmarried and take care of the parents.

Depends on what community or family -- not everyone expected the youngest DAUGHTER to care for them. I have documented proof of this in my own family from private records and notarized recs in Europe in a country where male primogeniture wasn't the rule.

[Anonymous]

So let's do a poll...how many of you people have actually wiped your elderly parents' bottoms??? Honesty please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So let's do a poll...how many of you people have actually wiped your elderly parents' bottoms??? Honesty please.

Umm, me? Do I get a cookie?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let's do a poll...how many of you people have actually wiped your elderly parents' bottoms??? Honesty please.

Umm, me? Do I get a cookie?

Let me guess...you're a woman?

[Anonymous]

They die as we all do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So let's do a poll...how many of you people have actually wiped your elderly parents' bottoms??? Honesty please.

This thread isn't about actually wiping parents' bottoms. It's about having kids who are around who are looking out for you and making sure you're getting adequate care.

[Anonymous]

It's about what happens to the elderly who have no children and who are Lower Middle class or poor.

They end up in bad nursing care places, forgotten about in emergencies, like this man in DC last September.

https://www.sokolovelawfirm.com/blog/elderly-man-pulled-from-senior-complex-fire/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let's do a poll...how many of you people have actually wiped your elderly parents' bottoms??? Honesty please.

This thread isn't about actually wiping parents' bottoms. It's about having kids who are around who are looking out for you and making sure you're getting adequate care.

This thread is depressing to read because it shows such low standards of what people expect when they become elderly. Why not use the time you have now to look after your body and mind so that you remain lucid and able-bodied? It's called diet and exercise. So many 80 and 90-year-olds in other parts of the world remain mobile and can climb stairs (which so many obese middle-aged Americans cannot deal with) and enjoy their everyday lives instead of imposing on their children. They probably had children before the introduction of BC but even if they were childless, they would be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let's do a poll...how many of you people have actually wiped your elderly parents' bottoms??? Honesty please.

This thread isn't about actually wiping parents' bottoms. It's about having kids who are around who are looking out for you and making sure you're getting adequate care.

This thread is depressing to read because it shows such low standards of what people expect when they become elderly. Why not use the time you have now to look after your body and mind so that you remain lucid and able-bodied? It's called diet and exercise. So many 80 and 90-year-olds in other parts of the world remain mobile and can climb stairs (which so many obese middle-aged Americans cannot deal with) and enjoy their everyday lives instead of imposing on their children. They probably had children before the introduction of BC but even if they were childless, they would be fine.

My parents took excellent care of themselves in every way and still developed Alzheimer and dementia. They too deluded themselves into thinking they would age perfectly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let's do a poll...how many of you people have actually wiped your elderly parents' bottoms??? Honesty please.

This thread isn't about actually wiping parents' bottoms. It's about having kids who are around who are looking out for you and making sure you're getting adequate care.

This thread is depressing to read because it shows such low standards of what people expect when they become elderly. Why not use the time you have now to look after your body and mind so that you remain lucid and able-bodied? It's called diet and exercise. So many 80 and 90-year-olds in other parts of the world remain mobile and can climb stairs (which so many obese middle-aged Americans cannot deal with) and enjoy their everyday lives instead of imposing on their children. They probably had children before the introduction of BC but even if they were childless, they would be fine.

My parents took excellent care of themselves in every way and still developed Alzheimer and dementia. They too deluded themselves into thinking they would age perfectly.

+1 My FIL was in excellent physical health when he went on a downward spiral from Alzheimers. That's actually worse because they live for a while like this and need constant care. It was exhausting for my MIL, and at times, he got physical with her. Thankfully, they had my DH and other kids to help out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Childless people like my Aunt have siblings and nieces and nephews

But my grandmother's siblings are all dead. And do nieces and nephews really provide the same kind of loving care that a child would?

It depends on the relationship. Two of my aunts did not have children. One was married and one never did. We have a close family and everyone stepped in to help care for my aunt and then my uncle before they died. My other aunt is still alive and in good health. We would absolutely provide the same level of support to her as for my parents. She helped raise us and has always been there for us. She still is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they are lucky they belong to a church or other close knit community. Otherwise, no one.

'The church' didn't notice when my FIL no longer went to church due to dementia.

Perhaps they assumed his obviously devoted DIL was caring for him?

DP Perhaps the son and DIL don't live near the FIL?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let's do a poll...how many of you people have actually wiped your elderly parents' bottoms??? Honesty please.

This thread isn't about actually wiping parents' bottoms. It's about having kids who are around who are looking out for you and making sure you're getting adequate care.

This thread is depressing to read because it shows such low standards of what people expect when they become elderly. Why not use the time you have now to look after your body and mind so that you remain lucid and able-bodied? It's called diet and exercise. So many 80 and 90-year-olds in other parts of the world remain mobile and can climb stairs (which so many obese middle-aged Americans cannot deal with) and enjoy their everyday lives instead of imposing on their children. They probably had children before the introduction of BC but even if they were childless, they would be fine.

My parents took excellent care of themselves in every way and still developed Alzheimer and dementia. They too deluded themselves into thinking they would age perfectly.

I don't think they exercised or ate healthily the way people do these days. For example, back then, women didn't lift weights.

[Anonymous]

I don't know why DCUMers are so against the idea of being mobile and lucid in one's old age.