Taking full or partial control of your elder parent’s finances can be a daunting task. Of course, you are expected to handle most of their financial aspect from now on. But what makes it even harder is if you are caring for someone who is irrational, easily gets irritated, has personality changes, and temper tantrums.
So if you are in a similar situation like this while providing effective financial management care, then allow us to help you by sharing with your these strategies for dealing with difficult behavior in seniors in today’s blog post.
Anger And Yelling
Age has a way of intensifying some personality traits in the most unpleasant way. For instance, if your parent is impatient or easily gets irritated, then chances are they will become extremely demanding and frequently enraged.
So what you can do to cope up with this situation is to find out the root cause of their anger. The aging process can spark some form of resentment in elders who are experiencing chronic pain, memory issues, losing friends, and other undignified things that happen as they grow old.
And more often, elder parents usually reserve their worst behaviors to closest family members as they just want to vent out their sentiments. So the best thing to do is to focus on what’s positive and ignore the negative.
Excessive Swearing And Inappropriate Comments
At times, you are the recipient of offensive language and the worst profanities even if you are doing your best to protect the financial welfare of your parents. Clearly, this difficult behavior in seniors is something that you don’t have to take personally because it may be a result of cognitive decline or other illnesses like urinary tract infection (which often has symptoms of negative behavioral changes).
But if excessive swearing does not have anything to do with physical or cognitive decline, then try to talk to them in a nice way and set some firm rules to stop the cursing. Surely enough, inducing a little guilt will make them realize that this behavior is unacceptable and it’s something that they should not do.
Extreme Frugality
Seniors who have excessive spending habits are definitely a big challenge. And the struggle to manage their money will be more difficult, especially if your parent is facing debt.
If this is the situation, then elders will often insist that there’s no problem with their finances. In fact, they will even stress out their right to handle their own money. But if they are no longer competent to manage their own finances, then explain it to them and make them realize that you are only doing this to save them from the possibility of being broke and becoming victims of scammers.
Aside from that, bringing in a financial management expert can also help.
Refusing To Let A Financial Management Expert Take Over Their Finances
And the last tip that we are going to share in dealing with difficult behavior in seniors has something to do with hiring professional financial management help.
Deciding to hire a financial management expert to take over your parent’s finances is an important milestone, but at times this idea is often disrupted when your parent refuses to accept them. Of course, you can’t blame them for having this reaction as the presence of any non-family member can make them feel vulnerable. And to some extent, they also feel scared, embarrassed, resentful, or a combination of the 3.
So what you can do to effectively address this issue is to talk to your elder parents and explain to them about the benefits of having a professional to take care of their money. And if they are still not convinced, then we suggest that you arrange a time where they can meet with the expert at the office or the café first. Try to make your parents at ease until they are comfortable enough to accept the professional help that you are offering to them.
If you need professional help in managing your parents’ finances, try Silver Bills’ bill payment services for seniors. Just click on the link to visit their website.