How to Handle Your Partner’s Aging Parents

When your partner’s parents start getting elderly, there are things that you will need to consider. What kinds of support do they have and what will they need? Will you and your partner be expected to pitch in in any way?

When your partner becomes a caretaker for their aging parents, it adds more responsibility and stress to both of your lives. Your family obligations will get larger and more complex. Here are some things to help you handle your partner’s aging parents with compassion.

Use Teamwork

You and your partner are a team. This means you’re together in everything, not just the easy parts. It is essential that you support your partner as they’re caring for their parents. Give them help, provide emotional support, and be a source of strength. Caring for family can be extremely stressful, so you need to take care of each other.

Research Your Options

If your partner is busy dealing with the daily work of caring for parents, they might not have time to look into all of their options for the future. You can help by providing this information. Take into account the needs of both the parents and the spouse when finding options.

Assisted living might be a good decision for everyone. There are more than 835,000 Americans living in assisted living communities in the US, according to the National Center for Assisted Living.

These options range in price, offerings, and environment, so there’s sure to be one that fits your family and their needs.

Communicate with Each Other

Communication is extremely important. You need to be able to talk about everything in a non-judgmental way. This is especially true for important issues like money.

If your partner’s parents have an estate, they’ll need to know what to do with it. They’ll be subject to estate taxes if they’re a couple with over $10,860,000 or if the parent is single with assets over $5,430,000.

Talk about money, mortality, and things you disagree on. It will make you stronger and more prepared for anything.

Get help from outside of the home

Caregiver organizations are usually non-profit organizations that provide care to the elderly, disabled, and those with chronic illnesses. These caregivers work in a variety of settings such as nursing homes, hospitals, and private homes. Caregivers are also known as home health aides or personal care assistants.

Caregiver organizations often have programs that offer respite for caregivers so they can take time off from their work duties without having to worry about what will happen during their absence.

Get Legal Protections In Place

Elderly people are often targeted by scammers, from both family members and unknown people. If your spouse is caring for aged parents, it is essential that they are protected.

You can handle this by talking to a lawyer about protection. Find out how to protect their money so that they have it when they need it. 119,853,012 individual refunds were made in 2017 and they are a juicy target for certain scammers. Make sure that your spouse’s parents don’t have their money stolen.

Have Patience

Things will get hard. Your partner’s parents might have dementia or other mental health issues that will impact how they treat you. Or you might get frustrated having to take on more responsibility in your own family while your spouse cares for their parents.

If your marriage is going to survive this, it is essential that you have patience with each other and with yourselves. Air your grievances, but don’t forget why you got married in the first place. Patience will help you reduce your stress levels and stay healthy yourselves. So let some things slide.

Handling your partner’s aging parents requires both emotional and practical solutions. Seeing your parents go from healthy, independent individuals to patients who need lots of care can be very stressful and your spouse will need you to be there to support them.

You can support your partner and yourself by helping find solutions and putting them into place. With patience and practicality, handling your partner’s aging parents doesn’t need to be as difficult as you might think.