I don't know what was in the water or air in the late 1930's/early 40's, but my parents and my friends' parents and in-laws are being a collective pain in the butt when it comes to aging in place. It seems like any time I get together with friends, and the subject of our aging parents comes up, they all are going through something similar, right down to dealing with the same weirdly irrational stuff.
Don't like your primary care physician and it's too far away? Insist upon going to urgent care rather than change to someone closer/more suited to your needs, and then procrastinate on going to urgent care for another month or more.
Make a big deal about healthy eating but then eat ice cream for dinner unironically because you can't/won't cook any more.
Gripe about your Gen X children spending too much money on cheap steak for you and ignore the hidden costs incurred by said kids on travel/time off work/etc when they visit to help you out.
Same but applied to the abstract concept of spending money on taxis/Uber/Lyft/cleaning services/yard work to keep your kids from having to do it all or injuring yourself doing things that have become dangerous.
Same but applied to the abstract concept of rent/mortgage on a senior apartment when you've got a pricy paid off home and annual property tax that costs less than a plane ticket for your kid to come help you.
Telling me about how the senior lunch program two blocks away is so popular because people like to socialize but never actually considering that you're the target audience and might like it too. (OK, this one is just my mom)
I could go on, but you get the idea. Mind you, this isn't even about going into assisted living, just about being realistic that you need some help now and making some changes or letting your kids make some changes on your behalf.
For the most part, people of my parents' generation did not go through this as much with their own parents, who were born around the turn of the century. Medical interventions and preventative care weren't as advanced so people didn't need care for as many years, more people stayed in the communities where they grew up, and elderly folks moved in with their kids when it was time rather than expecting their kids to uproot and come to them.
I used to think I'd want to spend my retirement puttering in the yard, but now I'm 100% sold on downsizing to something manageable early on and then shifting to some sort of senior apartment.
TL;DR my parents are driving me up a wall.
