Summary
Chapter 17: Families in Later Life, discusses the important aspect of aging. It touches upon the fact that women tend to outlive men, outnumbering them around age 65.
Physical heath and mental health are the two important things to watch out for, especially later in life. Staying physically fit is important, and is even something that many young people strive for. As people age there are two important mental disorders to be aware of: depression and dementia, for these two effect people as they age. According to the book, there is no way to stop, slow, or reverse aging.
The Chapter next talks about work and retirement. It mentions that many people are working well into their later years. There are two reasons for this: the first is because of social reasons, and the second reason is because social security and Medicare isn’t good enough to live on.
There are 5 grandparenting styles that are mentioned in the chapter:
Remote or detached
Companionate and supportive
Involved and influential
Advisory and authoritative
Cultural Transmitting
Grandparents can also be surrogate parents, and there are three types that are mentioned: custodial grandparents, living with grandparents, and day care grandparents. There are also five types of sibling relationships mentioned: intimate, congenial, loyal, apathetic, and hostile siblings.
Children oftentimes take care of their parents as they age; there are five different styles an adult child can use to take care of his/her parent(s): routine help, backups, circumscribed, sporadic, and disassociated.
Interesting Facts
I find it interesting that chart 17.8, showing the median income of older households by age and race/ethnicity (2008) coincides mostly with the trend of median household income for middle aged households in America.
Question
My question falls along the lines of the question proposed on page 490. Do you think older people, ages 65+ are capable of parenting small kids (such as grand children), even if they’ve done so before? Do you think the multigenerational gap is too large?
Steve Boser
Personally, I do not think that this gap is too large. Since I had an abusive father, he really was out of the picture since I was very young, and my grandfather stepped in as a dad for me. Many of the issues posed by the book were never related to my experiences in the least.
ReplyDeleteKarl Wahlen
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ReplyDeleteI don't think that the gap is too large. I think grandparents are vey capable of raising children even if they are 65 years or older. However, I do think we have to factor in a few things such as health. I think if the grandparents are in good health they are more than capable, but if they have health problems then I don't think they are as capable. I think they need to be finically capable and their health needs to be under control. I believe if these things are OK then I think they are more than capable to raise a child.
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