Tips When Visiting Elderly Grandparents
Grandparents love visits from their grandchildren. Grandchildren benefit from wonderful memories of their grandparents, stories they shared, words of wisdom, new perspectives, and even old-fashioned home cooked meals. To make the visit go as smoothly as possible, here are a few tips.
Young children may not understand their grandparent's health conditions such as Alzheimer's or Dementia. You can inform young children of what they may see and to understand certain behavior is just part of their illness not who they are as a person.
Time limits can help ensure there is plenty of time for conversation and other activities, but not too much that elderly grandparents become exhausted from the visit. Setting time limits ensure a more enjoyable visit for both parties.
Pick certain activities to do with grandparents on each visit, such as reading stories, looking over old photos, or working on a puzzle. This will keep grandparents and grandchildren actively involved with each other during the visit.
Give young children options in caring for their grandparents during their visit; such as reading to them, making them a snack, getting them a blanket or shawl are great ways to have children actively involved.
Regularly scheduled visits help grow relationships between grandchildren and grandparents. It also helps in avoiding seeing drastic changes in grandparents that may worry young grandchildren.
Talk to young grandchildren after the visit to answer any concerns or questions they may have about their grandparents or any conditions they may have.
