moving in with children

Picture this. You and the family are sitting around the dinner table, having a lovely time enjoying food and conversation about school and work. Towards the end of the meal, your spouse says, “We have to talk about something.”

Everyone stops chewing and looks at each other, thinking, “What did I do now?” The children are breaking into a sweat racking their brains about what happened in school the last two weeks, trying to recall what they might have done that you didn’t hear about yet. Your spouse is doing the same, “Did I forget something, an anniversary, birthday, maybe offended someone?”

Your spouse finally breaks the silence and starts talking about Mom or Dad, they’re slowing down, that they’ve noticed some things around the house that aren’t getting done and that in the not so to distance future they may need to move to where someone can take better care of them. Your spouse then says those words you never thought they would say, 

[Read more…] about Guess who’s coming to Dinner…and Staying?!

You remember “The Conversation” don’t you? Everybody dreads it. You can almost see it coming.  Your parents look as serious as you’ve ever seen them.  They sit way too close to you.  There’s a lot of deep breaths, sighs and them looking at each other as if to say, “you start.” Sometimes it’s just one, or it can be both if it’s going to be THAT conversation.  Then it comes.  Queue the eye roll.

Whether it’s about your grades, dating, smoking, drugs or sex, we’ve all been there at some point. We cringed because we thought they had no idea what they were talking about, they were soooo old after all, how could they possibly know more than you did about [fill-in-the-blank].

[Read more…] about Are You Ready to Have THAT Conversation With Your Parents?