|
 Neela Sakaria: Thank you for joining us. Can you please tell our readers a bit about your professional background?
Jane Powell Thomas: I am a Licensed Mental Health Counselor with 20 years of private practice in Seattle. I see adults, either as individuals or couples, who are experiencing depression or a difficult time in their lives.
Neela: You talk about your motivation for writing PARENTING YOUR PARENTS as being a response to all that your parents did for you in your life. Can you expand on that for our readers? When did it hit you that you wanted to put this book together?
JPT: I was blessed with two very loving and supportive parents. My Dad was the first to die when I was 60, so I had enjoyed their unconditional love when a child, when a mother and even as a grandmother. Early in January 1997 Time magazine had a cover story alerting baby boomers that they had better look out, because their parents were going to live a lot longer than they might have expected. My adult daughter said I should write a book, particularly about when the elder's decline begins. She had watched all that was involved with her grandparents' last years.
Neela: What advice would you give to our readers who may be afraid of approaching their aging parents, in terms of bringing up this topic and finding out about their finances and legal affiars, etc.?
JPT: I discuss this in the book. Choose a sibling who has the easiest and most comfortable access to the parents. In many instances the fear is greater than the reality. The elder may be relieved to have someone assume responsibility for important documents. Readers might ask the parent's physician or minister to open the subject.
Neela: What is the biggest mistake that adults make when faced with this life transition?
JPT: The biggest mistake is to do nothing and perhaps allow parents to live independently longer than they should. Nutrition, hygiene and safety are compromised.
Neela: I was struck by your list of statistics at the end of the book, where you write that "the average woman today will spend eighteen years raising children and eighteen years tending parents." As women also become increasingly busy in their own careers, how do you see this playing out in the future? Is the burden of tending to parents a woman's issue or does it face men equally?
JPT: Of course, men have parents that need tending, too, but the reality is that the burden of care giving elders falls to the resident daughter or daughter-in-law. There are many men who are loving sons, but culturally the tending is usually done by women. I discuss in the book that there are ways to share the many responsibilities among family members, old and young.
Neela: Are you working on any future writing projects?
JPT: I am presently working on a history of Madison Park.
Neela: Do you have anything else you'd like to share with our readers?
JPT: Many have said that their parents are already gone. I would suggest that they use my book to put their own affairs in order. It is the nicest thing you can do for your children.
Neela: Thank you very much for your time.
Parenting Your Parents
ISBN: 0944958354
|
