Elderly Care used to be completely different
By AmberLynn
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
United States
August 3, 2019 8:25am CST
I want to start this discussion with a disclaimer. I am writing this based off of my memory on a video I watched on youtube a few months (or so) back. The youtube channel in question is Townsends and I recommend it to anyone who likes Colonial (American) history. So, I may not recall all that I heard....
A couple of hundred years ago, the elderly were taken care of by the community they lived in. There was no "old folks home", and the care of the individual wasn't necessarily left to just the immediate family.
With that being said, if the elderly (supposedly invalid) person ended up in a community of people who didn't know them, that person would most likely not be treated as fairly as if they were in their hometown community.
When I say "taken care of" I don't mean just physical and emotional support. I am also referring to food, clothing, perhaps medicines (though that was a whole different thing back then too.)
People didn't stop working when they hit 65 like they do today. People worked until they could no longer work, sometimes being out in the fields or their individual trades until they fell over dead. (I have a story about that I might share one day).
So yes, while there are a lot of grievances and unfairness in the way elderly are treated today, it was completely different (and in some ways possibly more unfair) back then.
11 people like this
9 responses
@LadyDuck (502719)
• Italy
3 Aug 19
Back in times it was different. I know that my great grandparents went to live with one of their children when they were too old to take care of themselves. My grandparents always lived in their home, my mother who was a widow, often went there to help. It was different, but they were better. Have you seen the videos of elderly abused in the nursery homes? They are treated like animals sometimes, with the nurses that ask them "when will you finally die and let us rest?".
2 people like this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
3 Aug 19
I don't watch those videos, I know I would be torn between tears at the cruelty and anger at the injustice. As far as I am aware, we have never had a family member go to a nursing home. One great grandmother came to live with my grandparents when I was young. They built her a room and bathroom and even when she was in the final stages of life, hospice came into the home, she didn't go into hospice.
3 people like this
@LadyDuck (502719)
• Italy
4 Aug 19
@ScribbledAdNauseum No one in my family was ever sent to a nursing home. My mother had to stay in the hospital the last 6 weeks of her life, because she was attached to machines and she could not be moved. I was totally against this, but when you have a brother who is a doctor there is nothing you can do.
1 person likes this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
6 Aug 19
@LadyDuck I am sorry to hear that your mom had to stay in the hospital because she was attached to those machines. Hospitals can be such dismal places, especially the hallways that the doctors use to connect them to the different wings of the place.
My grandmother had to be moved to another wing of the hospital on her last visit to the hospital. The hospital was undergoing construction and so we traversed the hallways used by the staff. They were grey and bleak.
2 people like this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
3 Aug 19
I think you mean compulsory?
I don't really know how many of the elderly go to a home in the US, probably a lot more than other countries.
2 people like this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
4 Aug 19
@Janet357 Oh I see. It would be nice if more people do that here, but career / family life can be strained enough as it is. I think we (in the us) take too much for granted.
2 people like this
@Janet357 (75638)
•
4 Aug 19
@ScribbledAdNauseum here it is part of our culture that when our parents get old and they cant tend to themselves, we will take care of them. if we cannot do that, we will hire a caregiver but they still stay in our house so that we can still see them. same thing happened to my.grandma.
1 person likes this
@Letranknight2015 (52665)
• Philippines
3 Aug 19
Most people only cared about money now and doesn't have that tender loving care, not even from people has that quality anymore.
1 person likes this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
3 Aug 19
You know, I admire other countries for sticking together as family and taking care of their elderly. From what I've heard, In China the grandparents take care of their grandchildren while the parents work in other cities, but I think as the grandparents get older, they all live together again and the children take care of the parents.
I'm not sure exactly how other countries do it, but I believe most non - western countries take care of their elderly instead of sending them to live in a home.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (35091)
• United Kingdom
6 Aug 19
It certainly was different, and in many ways better. Of course there are good and bad aspects to everything... in many families there would be several daughters and it was just expected that one of them, generally the one considered the least 'marriagable', would be the carer for the elderly relatives. Many young women essentially sacrificed their own chances of family life. No-one wants to do that now because these days everyone expects that they can do everything.
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
7 Aug 19
I imagine it was very hard for the "unmarriageable" type. I like to think that some of these women married later in life, even if it wasn't a love match. We don't often think of the psychological aspect of things when it comes to history, but if things are tough on us today, I can't imagine what it was like "back then"
1 person likes this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
7 Aug 19
@Fleura Oh, so she married a little later in life? Had she been taking care of her parents prior to her union?
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@Fleura (35091)
• United Kingdom
7 Aug 19
@ScribbledAdNauseum I know my Great Aunt married and as part of the 'deal' took on looking after her elderly mother-in-law for many years, I guess she was one of the lucky ones!
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
6 Aug 19
It wasn't always family that took care of family either, or if it was, the family was much more distant than we are today. What I mean by distant is... a cousin might be taking care of an aunt or great aunt. Today, it's like it is becoming rare for even a daughter to take care of a mother.
1 person likes this
@RubyHawk (99367)
• Atlanta, Georgia
7 Aug 19
@ScribbledAdNauseum More older people go into retirement homes today, but not everyone can. It's expensive.Women used to be expected to take care of older family members but now everyone has their jobs. My mother in law lived with us for awhile until it became too difficult to care for her. When she couldn't get up and down and had to be lifted I couldn't do it. She went into a nursing home but she was very well taken care of. We visited often and so did her daughter and grandchildren.
@Hannihar (130150)
• Israel
6 Aug 19
@ScribbledAdNauseum
You are right. Things were so different in the olden days than they are now.
1 person likes this
@jstory07 (148764)
• Roseburg, Oregon
4 Aug 19
Now if you get old and are not rich the places do not want you. They want people that can afford to pay a lot of money.
@PatZAnthony (14749)
• Charlotte, North Carolina
6 Aug 19
Many we know well over 65 are still working and proud of it. Perhaps those needing assistance these days are in a facility b/c the family members must continue to work.
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
6 Aug 19
I've known some that have gotten to the age of retirement, retired and then went to work at a grocery store or other small place. Retirement didnt' suit them and / or they needed a little extra money as well.
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
6 Aug 19
Beyond Sad to see how many struggle.
1 person likes this
@amitkokiladitya (171988)
• Agra, India
6 Aug 19
@ScribbledAdNauseum yes...this is true
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