Today I will narrate you a small story, no…..no…… I will remind you of a story. Once there was a father and a son. Father asked his son, what is this? Son replied, it is a crow. After sometime, he again asked and son again replied the same. It continued for a while with some time interval. Lastly, his son got irritated and said, “I have told you ten times that it is a crow. Why don’t you remember.” The father said, “son, you had asked me the same question hundred times, when you were little but I did not get irritated”.
This story is repeated in almost every house, where they have old age parents or grandparents. There are lots of habits, associated with old age, like memory loss, repeating things again and again, talking too much, rigidity in behaviour, etc. Though these problems are harmless but are annoying, if we don’t understand the situation. Once we accept that it is bound to happen to almost all the old age persons, may be Sooner or later, then we will feel comfortable in handling the issues. Actually till date we have known the term parenting in context of our children, but dear, let me tell you that handling old age parents or grandparents is also parenting, as they tend to be childlike at this age. Shhhhhhh…….. Don’t let them know that you are treating them as your children. Nobody accepts the factors that are associated with old age and reminding them that they are losing memory or repeating things again and again or becoming adamant, will hurt their ego. We should smartly handle our old age parents or grandparents as they have been doing in our young age and in a manner that they are convinced to do whatever is beneficial for them. I know, it’s time consuming but just remember those old days when we had been demanding so much time and our parents used to attend us despite their busy schedule and pre-occupations.
I have a friend, whose father narrates his past time stories repeatedly. He listens to him patiently and never gets irritated. He told me that he listens to the stories again and again, just to see the smile and happiness on his face and after all, what else does he have to talk about because he is getting old day by day and is cut off from rest of the world.
As we manage to spare time for children, our hobbies, entertainment, similarly we need to spend time with our old age parents and handle them with care. Let’s start parenting our old age parents and grandparents covertly.
Happy parenting!!!