Dementia can be very difficult to explain, regardless of age. However, when your children notice that your parent, their grandma or grandpa, is acting differently because of symptoms of dementia, senior home care experts recommend that parents face these questions head-on and address them honestly. Your mother or father may play a crucial part in your children’s lives. Research suggests that if you don’t attempt to explain these problems to your inquisitive son or daughter, he or she will create an explanation from their own imaginations. Without knowledge about dementia and what it does to people, the child’s explanation may be more harmful than helpful. Expert senior home care professionals suggest sitting down and explaining the symptoms of dementia to your children in a manner that is age appropriate.
If your child is specifically asking about grandma’s forgetfulness sit down and ask your daughter some open-ended questions such as:
- “Have you ever known anyone who has forgotten things a lot?”
- “How do you feel when grandpa is sad?”
Have a conversation and let you daughter or son know that their grandparent may be forgetful, sad, angry and changing, and sometimes this is part of aging and memory loss. Talk about ways in which you are working to help your parent and have your child share this with senior home care experts as well. Empower them to stay involved in the life of their grandparent.
Dependent on your son or daughter’s age, it’s important to keep the explanation short and straightforward. Even teens and young adults may not want the complete medical details of how and why grandma or grandpa is changing. Remember, grandparents are the special adults in their lives, often the ones who ‘spoil’ them. They are the link that binds generations of a family. Senior home care providers note that often when grandparents begin to change and are no longer themselves, it is the grandchildren who fear the family and traditions are dissolving. Parents have the responsibility of handling the information and understanding about a grandparent’s disease and the emotional angst it may cause for their children.