President, Working Mother Media
As we enter our 50s, our children grow up, and our energy, worries and focus transfer to our aging parents—if we are lucky enough to still have them. Now in their 70s and 80s, the vibrant, active, decisive individuals we knew as Mom and Dad become increasingly ambivalent about making decisions, less physically capable and more reliant on us. In my birth country, India, children grew up watching parents take care of their parents; in fact, your children are your social security! You can only imagine my amazement after moving here as a young adult and seeing the U.S.’s fiercely independent elderly population, living alone or in communities with other seniors.
My own mother, now 80, was widowed at 53 and never remarried; she didn’t even…
