Aging Parents and Their Self-Esteem: Why it Matters

Most of us are familiar with the importance of self-esteem. We know how it matters to the healthy growth of young children, and we are aware of how it affects the lives of adults, both personally and professionally.

But have you ever thought about how important it is to the elderly? And why, if you are caring for an aging parent, you need to think about how to help Mom or Dad feel good about themselves?

Elder Care Cafe has some thoughts:

For most people, their sense of self-worth comes from their independence, their ability to take care of their family while feeling like they have a useful place in society.


In their senior years all of that disappears in what seems like an instant. In the eyes of the senior citizen, they go from being the hero to their kids to being a pitiful old man or woman being taken care of like they were a child. Their feeling of being useful vanishes and is replaced by a feeling of being unnecessary and a nuisance.


Everything they invested in themselves that are symbols of their success including their house and possessions, their ability to drive, and their work all go away in rapid succession one after the other. Small wonder senior citizens undergo a tremendous drop in self-confidence. When you go from thinking highly of yourself to not liking who you are at all, you stumble into a formula for depression and low self-worth.


You can read the entire article here.