1) Chapter 17's main focus is on families in later life. It starts by talking about our aging society. Then it describes how health plays a part with aging and affects on families, including both physical and mental health. The next section is about work and retirement, and all the things that go into retirement, and how it can affect marriages. Grandparenting, which is a big part of life for most people, is the next topic. The next part is about when parents get older and their kids become adults. Then, the experiences of death, dying, and grieving are discussed. Of course, the next step of these experiences is being single and widowed, which is the next section. Then there is a discussion of general family caregiving in later life. Also, the book presents the problem of competition for resources.
2) One thing I thought was very interesting in the book was the part about stereotyping aging people. It seems like a lot of things that we think are nice, turn out to be actually sort of insulting to older people. I thought this was a good section to include to bring attention to people that although they may have good intentions, it may not be received that way.
3) I thought that it was interesting that the book brought up the question of if grandparents should be named caregivers of very young children. What do people think that the pros and cons of this are?
Natalie LaBarbera
With a small amount of knowledge in this area, I can say that naming grandparents caregivers of young children is not a bad idea. "Parents of parents" may find themselves stuck in their ways but after a few weeks of being around a young child again, most of the parental knowledge seems to come back into view once more.
ReplyDeleteI think the pros tend to outweigh the cons. I think grandparents as caregivers would be a good idea because they have previous years experience (obviously), and are more mature as older adults. The con list would just be a multigenerational gap that could hinder the kid's childhood
ReplyDeleteSteve Boser