What happens to childless LMC/working class people when they get old?
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Anonymous
| I've been thinking about this lately as I watch my father and his siblings take care of my 90 year old grandmother. While she was still living in her home, they would check up on her on a regular basis, help her with her bills, discuss medical issues with her, have her neighbors check up on her. My aunt would call her every morning and remind her to take her pills. When she could no longer live on her own, they did all the research to find a good nursing home. They keep close tabs on her to make sure she is getting good care, and when she dealt with some medical issues where they felt she was receiving questionable treatment, they sought out other doctors to get a second opinion. There is absolutely no way my grandmother could have handled this on her own, and I sometimes think if not for her children, she probably would have just died about 10 years ago. Who looks after all the old childless people, once they reach the point, where they are no longer capable of taking care of their lives on their own, especially if they are not wealthy? |
Anonymous
| If they are lucky they belong to a church or other close knit community. Otherwise, no one. |
Anonymous
| The same thing that happens to wealthy childless people, OP. |
Anonymous
| You’d be surprised how close-knit and protective working class communities can be. There’s a lot of checking up on neighbors and family friends as they age. |
Anonymous
| My Mom is ill right now, with 5 of us she has us all checking on her, flying in for a week or summer, visits, calls, chats, drives to appointments, dinners. And her Mom with 7 kids has love and care daily. I told my 2 DDs I wish I’d had at least 4 kids. Luckily when I get gravely I’ll or my siblings do we will have each other + kids. It is hard work but beautiful be there for our Mom. |
Anonymous
| I’ll = ill |
Anonymous
| Childless people like my Aunt have siblings and nieces and nephews |
Anonymous
|
Likely will rely on Medicaid to pay for a nursing home.
But when it comes down to someone advocating on your behalf, then you likely will be on your own. ;( |
Anonymous
This is sad. You have to assume that there are many elderly people in this position. |
Anonymous
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? |
Anonymous
This. And what if they wait too late to make arrangements for a nursing home? There is no way my grandmother would be able to manage to find a nursing home or even deal with negotiating with medicaid. |
Anonymous
Except they have money to hire a caregiver or live in a nice assisted living apartment. |
Anonymous
I found a couple of articles that stated that about 40% of Gen X women are childless (no stats on men). So there's that. |
Anonymous
I've had friends who basically had to force their parents into assisted living, because their parents insisted they could live on their own (although they couldn't). What if a wealthy childless person waited too long to look for assisted living, and by the time they absolutely needed it, they didn't have the mental facilities to go about doing it. I have to assume this is not uncommon. Are these people who usually just end up dying in their home in their 80's through a fall or not taking care of their medical conditions. I wonder if it is even very common for childless people to make it past their late 80's. |
Anonymous
Apparently childless people do die earlier https://www.statnews.com/2017/03/27/parents-having-children-live-longer/ |