Why do Americans do this?

:(   Wed Dec 30, 2009 4:16 pm GMT
Why do they send away their mothers or fathers to retirement homes? That's so sad and cruel...
.   Wed Dec 30, 2009 4:27 pm GMT
Do you really think that only Americans do it?
Guest   Wed Dec 30, 2009 4:34 pm GMT
Americans are heartless creatures. So called First world and cultured people.
Another Guest   Wed Dec 30, 2009 4:51 pm GMT
Exactly so Guest! Now toddle off back to your squalid hut and wallow in your own filth.
K. T.   Wed Dec 30, 2009 5:19 pm GMT
Not all Americans do this and some parents and grandparents move to sunny locations on their own-away from their descendants
Guest   Wed Dec 30, 2009 5:25 pm GMT
It is because the old people smell badly so they have to keep them in a place where they can contain the foul odor.
Guest   Wed Dec 30, 2009 5:45 pm GMT
Another Guest, why dont you come back to my hut and take all of me down your throat..?
Jasper   Wed Dec 30, 2009 5:51 pm GMT
Americans send their parents to retirement homes for a simple reason.

Since the union-busting in the 1980s, normally both parents have to work. Who'd watch Granny?
jj   Wed Dec 30, 2009 6:25 pm GMT
Exactly. Whose going to look after them when their children and grandchildren have to work to make a living. Also, many American seniors voluntary go to retirement homes and senior living facilities because they don't wish to be a burden on their children and grandchildren.
K. T.   Wed Dec 30, 2009 7:44 pm GMT
People have an elevated idea what what an appropriate lifestyle is-that's why both parents have to work. Plus there was a lot of pressure on women in the eighties and nineties to do it all-earn the "bacon" fry it up in a fan and still be a woMAN...

My mom worked part-time, was always there at lunch for me.
K. T.   Wed Dec 30, 2009 7:46 pm GMT
I'm actually against sending seniors to nursing homes, but many people don't have a clue how to take care of their family members. There are resources available, so Mom or Dad can stay in their own home for a longer period of time, or info you can give to Mom and Dad about granny and great grandma.
Jasper   Wed Dec 30, 2009 8:37 pm GMT
"People have an elevated idea what what an appropriate lifestyle is-that's why both parents have to work. "

KT, my own Mom was a stay-at-home Mom all her life; she watched over Grandpa until he died. But that was in the 70s.

Looking around me now, and knowing what income everybody makes (more or less) I just don't see how it's possible for a mother to stay at home anymore—at least here in Reno. The numbers don't work out, and I really am trying to give your idea a fair shake. A stay-at-home Mom would have to live in the direst poverty unless the Father was a doctor, or something.

Giving you the benefit of a doubt, maybe you're in a very low cost of living state.
Rupert   Wed Dec 30, 2009 9:04 pm GMT
Because old people live too long these days. There should be a cap.
Pedro Alvarez   Wed Dec 30, 2009 9:52 pm GMT
yeah, cap and trade: we can start selling the credits
K. T.   Wed Dec 30, 2009 11:15 pm GMT
Jasper,

I have two brothers who live in the same city. One wife works, the other doesn't. Guess which one is always running low on funds! The wife who works. The frugal brother and his wife live a modest life while my other brother and his wife travel a lot, take multiple vacations, have their kids in multiple activities, etc.