If you want to be taken care of in your old age dont move away from your family for a "destination retirement". For example if you jet off to Florida and ignore family for years do not be surprised no one uproots their lives so you can age in place.

I think you underestimate how much people do care for the elderly/disabled. I consider paying my extensive taxes to be helping others and charity.

My siblings and I gladly took care of our mom, in her home, until she died. She was a great mom and we were happy to do it.

Anonymous wrote:Also: Nearly nine in ten (89%) adults 65 and older report they are currently taking any prescription medicine. This compares to three-fourths of 50-64 year olds who report taking prescription drugs, half (51%) of 30-49 year olds, and four in ten (38%) 18-29 year olds.

Pharma advertising is very effective.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People also worked from home or relatively close by, and households had many more members that could take turns watching someone. I totally think modern society has a problem with not intrinsically valuing the elderly the way older cultures did, but so many aspects of our current lives make it much harder to take care of elders without burning out. We should have a law where all office jobs can have a mandatory WFH option.

People on DCUM always think they have the hardest life. Caring for an injured person while living in a bog with no running water, no indoor plumbing, no wheelchair, or smooth surfaces, no pain medicine. That's not hard! Only DCUM life could possibly be hard.

IKR, so much easier when we were hunting for or growing our food and not so stressed about country club sponsorship.

Also: Nearly nine in ten (89%) adults 65 and older report they are currently taking any prescription medicine. This compares to three-fourths of 50-64 year olds who report taking prescription drugs, half (51%) of 30-49 year olds, and four in ten (38%) 18-29 year olds.

Here: More than four in ten older adults take five or more prescription medications, triple the rate from twenty years ago. Nearly 20 percent take ten drugs or more.

More than half of adults 65 and older (54%) report taking four or more prescription drugs compared to one-third of adults 50-64 years old (32%) and about one in ten adults 30-49 (13%) or 18-29 (7%).

Yep, that's exactly what I was trying to convey. The elderly used to live as long as the body could keep up and the body normally went before the mind. People who lived until the very old were mentally sound. Without modern medicine and procedures, many current elderly and even middle age would literally pass within months.

Get back to me when bog people give away all their possessions and food to support a grandparent with dementia for 25 years.

For PP who didnt have grandparents live in: My great-grandmother lived with us for several years while I was in ES, then moved into her own apartment until she passed while I was in college. My mom's mom lived with my parents at the end of her life. My dad's mom is still living on her own in her 90s but dad is the nearest of her children so he checks on her and drives her around. Growing up, about half my friends had a grandparent either in the house or actively involved in caring for them. I'm mid-40s, white, from CA.

PP. Wanted to add that my grandma lived until 97 and was sharp as a tack until the end.

Anonymous wrote:
In my childhood, many families had grandparent(s), parents, and children in the same house. We did, too. My grandfather lived downstairs in our house in an "in-law apartment" until his death. My father built is especially for him.

Where did you live?
I only knew one person who had a grandparent live with them--and it was for a very short time. Basically it was evident the grandparent only had a few months to live.