For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for July 31, 2021

even my stepmother is playing parent to her mother who moved into my stepmother’s and father’s house a few years ago

I keep wanting to crawl into my dads lap and watch a movie with him.

It may feel strange, but just wait till you have lost both of them. My Dad fell asleep in 2009. And my Mom fell asleep in 2011, (she would have been 100 this year). Still miss them though, sigh.

“We’re becoming parents to our parents”. Oh Phil. Helping your parents move is not being a parent to your parents.

Bet you never thought the roles would be reversed, eh?

Lynn’s Comments:

When I was around 30, I asked my mother, “When can you say you have truly grown up?” She replied, “Never.” When her dad died, she looked up from writing the obituary and said, “I’m an orphan, now.” She was over 65.

It is indeed a blow when we realize that “we” are the grown ups now.

Be grateful for having your parents as long as you have them. Life often feels empty once you lose them. It’s been over 30 years since i lost mine and I’m now almost the age they were when they passed and they still regularly fill my thoughts.

in my case, my dad died when I was seven. My mother and I bought the house in 1995, and I haven’t changed her badroom much since she passed over a decade ago. My mother outlived my father by 45 years and started slipping into dementia about five years before dying of a stroke. Fortunately, I’m too busy to be lonely in a three-bedroom house.

My mom developed Alzheimers. I was an only child and my step father was already gone. Things finally reached a point where I petitioned to become her legal guardian.

Power of Attorney’s are weak. The person that signed them can verbally override them. Guardianships they cannot BUT you have to submit yearly to the courts an accounting of every penny spent.

Worse part was in Georgia they serve papers for a court hearing. Mom didn’t have to appear but they had to serve her. She was in one of her better moments and she called my house. The wife answered and my mother wanted to know, “Why is he doing this to me?” Almost killed me but I knew I had to do it to handle things for her.

Whatever road you have to take, do the best you can. That’s all you can do.

A crucial difference is when we watch a child we don’t expect the relationship to end with their death.

What do mothers who worry and heroin addicts have in common? They both rationalize that it is who they are and they make every excuse in the book why they can’t quit. They get no benefits from doing it, and one day it will destroy them.

To them, you always will be…..

I am kind of there. But I have been informed by my mom I am not the boss of her! LOL.

I believe that we will see our parents in heaven some day. Have a great weekend my friends.

I don’t think I can take care of my mom I can barely take care of me REYREY !

It’s scary. I guess that’s why Lynn drew them with the deer in the headlights look.

Love Elly’s Princess Lea look in panel three. (yes, I KNOW it’s the car headrest!)

I helped care for my dad before he passed, even to the point of changing his diapers. Fair’s fair, he changed enough of mine. It was my way of saying “Thank You” for all he did for me.

Just wait till you have to become a parent to your sibling.

I had an interesting experience when I went shopping at Ikea with my 94 yo mom to get furniture for the apartment she was moving to. Dad had passed away and after a few years she decided that it was time to move out of the big house on the hill to a simple apartment by the bay.As we were collecting this and that I felt like I was shopping with a teenage daughter who was heading off to her first apartment. Mom wanted a fresh start for most of the things in the new place.I don’t have kids but in that moment I kinda felt like a dad.

Mom is 99 now and may have to move from the apartment to a place where there is more attention for her. It can be kind of a drag going over to help with something or bring more bananas, but I cherish every moment because I know this chapter will come to a close someday.

Just be happy you have parents and not a caregiver to them. My dad age 79 1999 early May, mom 2016 age 92 in mom home.

I got dropped in the deep end of that pool on Wednesday when my mom had a heart attack. She’s fine now and home but she was my dad’s primary care giver…I am to both of them now. I keep having to remember that I need to breath or I’ll be next.

Since you are not ready to grow up, does Baby Elly require her strained vegetables to be spoonfed to her at mealtimes?