Senior Spring Holiday Adjustments

With Easter just coming to an end and Passover continuing throughout the week, there have undoubtedly been many family visits with your senior loved ones.

This can be a great time for family to reconnect and spend some well sought out time together. It may be some of the only time that your elderly family members get to engage with all members of the family or break up their normal daily routine.

Make the Most of Your Holiday Together

It’s alright to just get together with family and take things as they go. But, to have a really fulfilling experience, try and plan things to do that involve your senior loved one. Spending time with all loved ones might not come often. Having things planned to do can make great use of your time together.

This can include things from crafts, board games, movies, baking, etc. It can include anything that can get your senior to just be a part of everything else going on throughout the get together. This is also a great opportunity to provide dynamic mental activity for your senior.

Care to Include Your Senior Loved One

Often, even when we have family events planned for the holiday get togethers, our senior loved one’s can’t or won’t participate. We often focus our efforts around the younger generations, especially around Easter. We create things like Easter egg hunts that often preclude the participation of older generations. Many seniors can’t physically participate in these events because they may have trouble moving or bending. And on the other hand what often fills the eggs is candy and sweets, which many seniors can’t have due to dietary restrictions or ailments. Similarly, during Passover, there may be seniors that can’t have traditional foods or drink wine with the rest of the family.

What you can do, however, is find ways to include your senior loved one in other ways. For example, you can set aside time in the night for the seniors to tell the family stories about their time participating in all the holiday activities as children or young adults. What this does is give them an opportunity to be heard and recognized within the family. And it gives them an chance to bring back some of the nostalgia from older days. Telling their stories creates a way for them to actively participate in the creation of more holiday memories.

Learn About Your Senior Loved One’s Past

This may be a great time to learn about your loved one’s childhood traditions during the holidays. Sometimes their childhood traditions are very different from the things they do today. Take time to ask them about what they did as children. Then see if you can incorporate that back into the holiday get togethers.

Maybe you will end up learning more about your loved one in the process. Often times we forget that our senior loved ones have so many memories and traditions to share with us. It could be a great change or an opportunity for newer generations to experience those traditions again.

Conclusion

Whatever you do this holiday season, just remember to keep your senior loved one in mind with your plans. Think about how great it feels to not only be included, but to have some plans revolve around you. Seniors will often fade into the background of holiday events and family get togethers. This is a simple result of events being centered around younger generations. By thinking about the ways that you can include your senior, you can make any holiday get together a great one.

We at HomeCare Powered by AUAF have a dedication to serving your senior loved one. If you would like to learn more about us and our services, call us at 773.274.9262