When I say things we learn from our elders, what I exactly mean is things we learn from the mistakes of the old people in our home. One of my old aunt was unwell last week and she had some serious health conditions. She has 2 daughters of who one stays with her and another one a building away. The one who stays along with her staying in the same home also lives in her own world and she is not aware that her mother's condition is getting bad. When the 2nd daughter visited her, she saw her mother's condition was bad and finally took her to the hospital for treatment. These are very common cases that we get to hear where children do not take good care of their parents and are just absorbed in their own life. I feel sad for such parents and children both.
The problem here with my aunt is that she is not very well off financially and to even look back at her life, she has live it very mindlessly and never really thought of her future times security. When I look at her life, the first thing that I always keep in mind is to be financially independent for your old age life and for that we need to start planning right from the time we are young, because money is not going to drop from air suddenly when we get old.
Having a proper health plan, saving money for day to day expenses and medical expenses are all part of old age which needs to be planned for. This also is a problem in our culture, that parents feel that when they get old it will be their children's responsibility to look after them in every way. I personally do not believe in this ideology. Yes, it will be good if children will take care, but setting that expectation and not doing enough for yourself when you can is a wrong attitude.
Everyone gets old, but that does not mean that we have to be dependent at that age on our children. After all they will also have their life and family to take care off, so why add more burden on them.
For my aunt, she and her husband both did work for all their lives, but they never had any concepts of saving. They would spend away everything they would earn, buying new fancy things and all which is not a necessity and then complaint they do not have enough finance. Now they are in their 70s and both of them are not in good health and even financially weak, they cannot even work now with their conditions. They do receive a lot of help but then is that how one should live their life.
Lack of money and ill health can make old age very miserable and both can be avoided by working from a very young age by investing financially and by investing in your own health by taking good care of it. When you are careless towards both then you also need to bear the consequences. Old age should be lived with dignity and not with the feeling of helplessness and dependability and for that we need to start preparing and planning from a very early stage in life. Our old age should not be a burden for the children, it should be like a blessing where we can be a part of their lives in good ways and being helpful for them. Old age is not suffering, it is about slowing down, relaxing, enjoying, pursuing your hobbies and dreams for which you did not have time.
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