Make Sure to Include Your Senior Loved Ones
When the holidays come around, many people are excited to be able to take some time off from their busy schedules and relax with their families. This includes our senior loved ones, who may need it more than anyone as their lives change around them.
Moving to a retirement home, whether it be assisted living, memory care, or independent living like the senior apartments here at the Reserve at Red Run, is a huge life change for our senior family members. It can be a big shift from doing what they’ve always done to having to change up their daily lives in a new and unfamiliar place.
This is why it’s so important to ensure that you’re including your senior loved ones in your holiday plans. They want to have the same feeling of comfort and belonging that they’ve always had around the holidays, and they may worry that they won’t have that family time after they have transitioned into a senior living community.
Are you trying to figure out the best way to include your senior loved one in your holiday plans? Here are some ways that might be able to help!
1. If they can’t come to you, then take it to them
For many seniors, trying to get up and out to go visit family at the holidays is a near impossibility. This can be for many reasons: a lack of transportation, mobility issues and struggles, money, distance, and more. However, that doesn’t mean that your senior loved one shouldn’t be included in the Thanksgiving festivities!
If your senior loved one isn’t able to make it to you, then you should try to get to them! If you’re able, bring your family to the senior apartments in Madison Heights, MI to visit with your loved one in their home. Because each senior apartment has a kitchen and plenty of visiting room, your senior’s apartment is the perfect place to have a miniature version of Thanksgiving where your senior doesn’t even have to leave their apartment.
While it may not be the same as being at home for the holidays, your senior will appreciate being able to be a part of the action more than you know.
2. Plan your gathering to accommodate your loved one
When your loved one comes to visit, it’s important to make sure that they’ll be comfortable in your home. Senior loved ones can often summer from different physical and/or mental limitations, and certain elements of a Thanksgiving meal may exacerbate that.
If your loved one has Alzheimer’s or dementia, then a large family gathering with several family members that don’t come by often may not be the best idea. It may be overwhelming to your loved one to have so many people in one place, especially if they don’t recognize those who are visiting because they don’t get to see these family members often.
Plus, trying to explain a loved one’s mental condition to the family is difficult enough without the added stress of the holidays. If you’d like your loved one to be able to see these extended family members (or vice versa), plan a gathering where you can invite everyone but in smaller amounts of people so as to not be overwhelming.
After all, if you want your senior loved one to be at your party, you need to make sure that they’re actually happy, healthy, and comfortable!
3. Offer to help your loved one get ready for the holiday
Here at our senior apartments in Madison Heights, MI, our dedicated workers and staff are more than happy to help your loved one get ready for the holiday season. However, we realize that preparing for the holidays just isn’t the same without your family. Your senior loved one is no different.
If you live close enough to your senior family member, then helping them prepare for the holiday season is a great way to get them involved around Thanksgiving. Offer to go shopping with them and hit up those Black Friday sales (at a reasonable hour, of course). Ask them if they’d like help with their mail, trips to the post office, or any kind of gift wrapping in preparation for Christmas.
They may not want your assistance with this holiday preparation, but nine times out of ten, your loved one will be thrilled that you want to spend that additional time with them.
4. Don’t forget to include family traditions
When you’re inviting your loved ones over for Thanksgiving, you want to make sure that they feel happy, safe, and welcome, and this is especially true for inviting over your senior loved ones.
When seniors age, they want to feel included in family traditions, whether those are old traditions or new ones. Don’t let your loved ones feel like they’re missing out on participating in the holiday festivities because you didn’t include the traditions that they’re most familiar with.
Determine what family traditions are most important to your senior family member, and try to incorporate those into the holiday festivities, whether you do so in the way it’s “always been done” or finding a new way to make it all your own. Having that piece of familiarity to grasp onto in an unfamiliar situation can make all the difference to your senior, who may be feeling a little out of place and out of their depth. Traditions are traditions for a reason, after all!
Reserve at Red Run – Senior Apartments in Madison Heights
Here at our senior apartments in Madison Heights, MI, we make it easy for seniors to celebrate Thanksgiving in their own way. Our apartments have full-sized, fully-equipped kitchens to make celebrating Thanksgiving possible here at Reserve at Red Run. We are also proud to offer guest suites, meaning that visiting your senior loved one here at Reserve doesn’t have to be a huge pressure on them.
Between the spacious and well-equipped apartments, guest suites, landscaped grounds, patio seating, and more, the Reserve at Red Run is the perfect place to host your next family Thanksgiving.
If you’re interested in making the Reserve at Red Run your home for the holidays, contact us today!
