Caring for Aging Parents: Essay About Family Relationships

Should adults lead to their elderly parents? As long as they be obliged to help them financially?

The notion of children becoming responsible for the well-being of the elderly parents is not new. As parents grow older in order to find it hard to take care of themselves financially and personally, a popular view suggests that their children should take on the obligation for them. While it does work that kiddies should be helping out and caring for their parents, it will not be described as a strict obligation for kiddies to take care of the parents.

Though it should be socially appreciated behavior for a kid to help his / her elderly relations, children didn't choose to become in the relationships making use of their parents, so that they should not be legally or morally obliged to care for them. There are various types of family and child-parent relationships, yet a very important factor is in keeping: we usually do not choose to be born by our parents. The relationships between children and their parents are hence not consensual. While parents should be obliged to be mindful for their young ones as they grow (because they make a conscious choice to give birth to a kid and keep him or her), young ones are never given any options (Stuifbergen, and Van Delden 63). Consequently , as they become adults, they must be be given a free of charge choice whether to help out their parents or maybe not. Of course, people should be motivated to look after their parents, yet they need to not be held responsible because of this care. By making young ones obliged to care for their elderly parents, we would put children under constant pressure from possibly unpleasant and burdening relationships without any potential for escaping them.

The notion of obligation of children to take care because of their elderly parents would not only have limited effect on the well-being of parents, it may also harm the children’s health. Adults are constantly stressed by the challenges of financial stability and independence, while struggling to construct their own families and take care of their children. For that reason the additional stress of the obligation to take full care of the elderly parents leads to intense stress and possible health problems. Coe and Van Houtven’s study figured both men and women who took care of their elderly parents were more likely to experience depression and evaluate their health lower (991). Professionals specialized in giving take care of the elderly must be hired specifically to do this stressful and challenging job, yet it is unfair to put such additional burden on adult children of elderly parents. If we imagine a family group with four elderly people (parents of both partners) being “attached” to it as well as children as well as other responsibilities, this indicates clear that such an idea is absurd and not even close to the modern concept of justice. This does not signify elderly people must be left for themselves and without any help, of course. Yet it should be mostly the government’s responsibility to care for seniors people who spent their adult lives paying taxes and investing their work in the common good.

To close out, elderly people must certanly be taken care of, yet it would be immoral and unhealthy to put this burden on the children of those people. Not just do kiddies enter into relationships with their parents without any consent, but they also face much more health risks if indeed they take care of their parents. Simply speaking, while people should be encouraged to help out their elderly parents, they surely ought not to be obliged to take care for them.

Works Cited

Coe, Norma B., and Courtney Harold Van Houtven. “Caring for Mom and Neglecting Yourself? Medical Effects of Looking after an Elderly Parent. ” Health Economics, vol 18, no. 9, 2009, pp. 991-1010. Wiley, doi: 10. 1002/hec. 1512. Accessed 18 Feb 2019.
Stuifbergen, Maria C., and Johannes JM Van Delden. “Filial Obligations to Elderly Parents: A Duty to Care? ” Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 14.1 (2011): 63-71.