When do you take the keys away from an elder parent???

I agree that we need to keep an eye out on them and then when it's time they can be told in a loving way. It is just because we care after all. I was lucky not to have to be in that spot. My mother gave up her license on her own when her car needed more repairs than she could afford. At first I though she was nuts and would regret it. She was only in her 60's. But she was fine with it.

I took the keys away from my father when I got a call from the sheriff’s office that my dad had knocked down some mail boxes. He never even knew he hit anything. The people saw it and turned in his tag number and I got the call. Dad didn’t like for me to take his keys, but it was the beginning of the end for him. I had to hide the keys and my keys because he would plunder in my purse for keys and go when he got a notion too. I worked at night and slept in the day and he would take advantage of that and take the car while I slept. He would get confused and forget where he was going. He was 81 when I took his keys from him.

It would be a sad day to have to tell your parents they can no longer drive. Even if we say that whose to say our parents wont fight us on the idea though. I remember a few years back this old lady was driving up the hill by our house. The sun was in her eyes and she crossed lanes and drovce up over my parents steps into their yard where my kids had been standing moments before. Her son came and apologized and said he wouldnt be allowing her to drive any longer.

hi bjc66bjc I do agree as we here in C alifornia have seen several accidents causing other deaths where the elderly driver some how accelerated inside of braking and plowed into a number of people in Farmers market in Los Angeles.another old lady mistook the accelerator for the brakes and struck another car down on Balboa Island , careened off the other car and went over into 'the backbay waters.She was rescu3ed safely and no one else was hurt. but the los Angeles one was videotaped and showed this old man not attempting to stop as he kept hitting people. I was disgusted as his lawyer tried to maintain he did not know that he was hitting people and killing and injuring them. what stopped him was a large truck parked to unload groceries. He killed the two men unloading the truck but at last he got stopped . He finally was sentenced to ten to fifteen years for mu ltiple manslaughter...The doctors who examined him said he might have had a minor stroke but ]

I agree. I am 60 and do most of the driving. My granddaughter is with us right now so when I am not able to I think she will take over gladly. She enjoys driving although she goes alittle too fast sometimes.

This is definitely true. No matter how long a person has been driving, once we get old, our reflexes start to slow down. We're not as quick anymore to react to sudden swerves of vehicles or some person darting across the street and stuff. Sad but there will come a time when age will really make us unfit to drive. The problem is what that age is, and I agree with you that one good way to find out is for us to ride with our parents and assess their capabilities to drive. If we feel that they're already having a hard time, we have to be assertive and take they keys away from them.