THE ESSAY:
“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.” - George Washington Carver. Responsibility is the state or fact of having a duty to deal with something or of having control over someone. Everyone has major and minor responsibilities in life; completing your homework in time, returning your library books before the due date, going to school, being a good role model for your siblings, helping out with household chores, being a dutiful, child, grandchild, sibling or classmate.
However, taking care of the elderly in your family is not at all easy. You need loads of patience, good control over your emotions and a comforting choice of words to make them feel loved, encouraged and have support. Elderly are a resource, not a burden. They have valuable lessons and experiences that we can learn from. They are very wise and will help us to solve our problems.
As parents grow older, they find it hard to take care of themselves financially and personally, a popular view suggests that their children should be helping out and caring for their parents. Even so, it should not be a strict obligation for children to take care of their parents. Children may find their parents a burden to take care of because once they grow old, many regard them as unimportant people in their lives. Elderly start becoming weaker, slower and need more attention with their deteriorating eyesight. Young adults may not have enough money to pay for their parents’ hospital or clinical bills. Hence, an old age home is their only option. The elderly become more tender, emotional and are more dependent. Nowadays, people lack the sense of giving back or serving their own blood. It is better to send elderly to old age homes rather than keeping them isolated or neglected. Our parents scrimp and save money for us. They spent almost their entire life nurturing us. We are not doing them a favour by taking care of them. We are giving them a shoulder to cry on and a strong base for them to stand on. They will be much happier and satisfied if we spend time with them.
When we do think about meeting the needs of older people, we tend to think in terms of care, but even in this most basic area of provision for the elderly, what we have is piecemeal. The result is that older people are often left in a very insecure, vulnerable and precarious position.
We urgently need to provide a range of care options, a range of housing and income options and a range of flexible working and educational options for our growing population of older people. And if we put such systems in place, we will all benefit, not just those of us who are older. To conclude, elderly people should be taken care of, yet it would be immoral and unhealthy to be wholly dependent on their children.
I would be greatly obliged if you were able to mark this or correct it as soon as possible. Thank you for your kind attention.
~Dillydoun