David Solie’s blog

Aging Parents: Time To Move?

Helping aging parents consider a change in living accommodations is a delicate process. Before offering unwanted advice about where to live, adult children should first undertake a compassionate assessment of the losses and potential gains of this emotional transition. There…

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Poetry and Aging Parents, Part 6

We grant the old a special courage to weather the slings and arrows of aging, but we forget their older brains are rewired for contemplation, a benefit that goes far beyond facilitating life review. This unique capacity of second half…

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Caregiver Decision Fatigue

Caring for aging parents brings with it a new kind of exhaustion called decision fatigue. While its cause has a number of contributing factors, two in particular stand out as primary sources: • Sustained engagement with dilemmas • Decision volatility…

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Poetry and Adult Children, Part 3

Below the perpetual buzz of our busy caregiving lives is another channel, softer in tone and kinder in character. We sense it in vertical moments where rushing and worrying get sidetracked, the chance second where life sparks back a fragment…

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Post-Hospital Syndrome and Aging Parents

Hospital stays are stressful for anyone but can turn out tragic for frail seniors. Arriving with diminished physical reserves, they are subjected to a world of frequent needle sticks, unappetizing food, sleep deprivation and long waits for doctors. Even if…

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Toxic Parents and Adult Children

It’s the luck of the draw as to which childhood any of us inherit. Sometimes it’s filled with toxic parents who leave abusive tattoos that last a lifetime. Remarkably, they wind up under our care with the same bag of…

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New Boomer Epidemic: Aging Alone

Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods. …Aristotle As the age wave arrives at the land of old, it carries with it a substantial population of childless and unmarried Boomers characterized as “elder…

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Boomer Pedal Bike Option: Kinder Mechanics

Older bodies need exercise options. The bikes of youthful riders, thin tired road machines and rugged mountain climbers are a poor fit for bad backs, worn knees and stiff necks. Boomers have come to a point in their lives where…

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The Wrong Future

Caregivers experience a wide range of stressful situations that require a singularity of focus. While hyper-focus works in the short term, in the long term it takes an insidious toll. Health, activities, friends and finally the future all fall by…

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