Young children uncomfortable around old people…I am always amazed when I see young children interact with an elderly person.
Some children are very comfortable, but the majority seems to be uneasy or scared around seniors. A lot of what I see is in our Residential Care Homes for the Elderly or Board and Care Homes as they are also known.
That probably starts at home. If they have close ties to grandma and grandpa, they are most likely used to seeing them quite often. One difference is that some people in these types of homes need more care and often have disabilities that might be strange to younger children.
What I noticed here in the United States is that seniors downsize and move out of the old neighborhoods where they raised their children living separate lives and only seeing each other here and there. Some of our Elderly populations live in 50 and over parks or communities where children are not allowed. I feel this is unfortunate because exposure to children may very well be what keeps us young.
On our recent trip back to my hometown in Switzerland, I was curious to see if anything had changed. The one thing that I really enjoyed growing up in my little hometown was that the young and old lived together.
In many cases, Grandpa and Grandma would live with their kids until the end, especially on farms. Our Elders were always involved with the younger generations; they even lived in the house next to their families or in the same building as their children and grandchildren.
If one went to a restaurant, you would always find the old and young sitting together and talking about daily issues. I always thought that was great. The younger people learned a great deal from the older generations and older ones learned what’s new with teenagers, etc.
What I found out while on my trip is that times are changing there as well. More and more elders are moving to Assisted Living Communities and Board and Care Homes, usually because of an ailment like Dementia or Alzheimer’s, etc. As fate would have it, a Care Home for the Elderly was built across the street from the house that I grew up in.
But like anywhere in the world, people like to stay home as long as possible and live independently. The one thing that I did not see is 50 plus neighborhoods. People still live in their communities, downsizing here may mean to rent out a room or two to get additional retirement income. Overall, young and old stay in the same neighborhoods and live together without too many problems.
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