Sharing the Care of Older Parents
When DNA is All You Share With Siblings

7a3c4a0e-1665-47d3-bda3-d52f79310b35Making decisions about how to manage the finances and end-of-life healthcare for older parents often leads to middle aged sibling rivalry.

We tend to think that we should all think alike because we were raised by the same set of parents, but it usually doesn’t work out that way. There are multiple influences that affect our view of the world, including birth order, education, the people we marry, the places we live, the careers we choose, the friendships we form, the faith we follow, and our financial resources.

So even though we may have been raised in the same house, the experiences we have after we leave home dramatically change our perception of the world. No matter how much our parents loved us or how much we love them, most of the time we will not agree with our siblings about what our parents need and how to manage their care.

That’s why it’s so critically important to make decisions about end-of-life care before a crisis occurs.

If you think you might end up caring for your older parents, or if you think it’s possible that your children might someday need to step in and help manage your care, you might want to forward my full-length article on this topic to them: Sharing the Care of Older Parents When DNA is All You Share With Siblings

These are not easy issues or fun discussions, but if you do what needs to be done now, it will go a long way to keeping your family from imploding in the future.

You might also want to watch one of my videos on this topic: Caring for Aging Parents – End of Life Planning