Your mom took care of you. You take care of your children. And now, you’re taking care of your mom. In fact, according to AgingCare.com, an overwhelming percentage of caregivers are women—91% of adult child caregivers are daughters, while wives constitute 76% of the spousal caregiver population. Also, more than 50% of care receivers are either mothers or wives. What’s more, the “typical” U.S. caregiver is a 46-year-old woman who works outside the home and spends more than 20 hours per week providing unpaid care to her aging parent. So with all this on her plate, how can a mother spend meaningful time with her own mother and her children?
Make this Mother’s Day special for your family with simple activities that connect the generations – from grandma to grandchild. If your mother has cognitive losses or physical limitations you can still create special moments to celebrate your relationship with the following multi-generational activities. There are so many emotional benefits to intergenerational activities! These activities are a way for a mother, sandwiched between her children and aging mother to feel connected to both. In addition, the activities create opportunities for family memories and traditions to live on in the form of videos, albums, and meals!
1. Building a scrap book or on-line photo album
o Ask you children/teens to scan old photos and organize them into time periods
o Have your kids interview your mother and transcribe her “memories” into different sections of the book (Smilebox; Snapfish ; Shutterfly ) Apps are also available to make albums from your phone photos.
2. Make a physical scrap book
o Have your young children or teens collect images from the internet of items that are familiar to your mother during her childhood (bike, phone, car, etc.)
o You can pull together photos, report cards, letters, etc. from your mother’s memories
o Build the scrap book together
3. Make and watch videos
o Have your children create a “if only we knew this about our mother/grandmother” list and film your mother/grandmother answering your questions
o Use photos to prompt stories and film your mother telling her history
o Watch old family films/videos together
o Apps available include pre-loaded content that can be used to engage those with cognitive deficits as well as to add your own personal video, photos, etc. such as with Grey Matters
4. Make family recipes
o Try to recreate one of the meals you ate as a child. You can adapt the “making” process to fit the skills/capacities of young children or for seniors with cognitive losses. For example, place pre-measured ingredients into bowls. Use adaptive utensils (products available to demonstrate for use by children and for those with cognitive losses or those with physical challenges can be found at Rehabmart, ESpecial Needs and Curious Chef).
o You can ask your family to close their eyes and smell scents to elicit memories and ask your teen to write the recipe and start a family recipe book
o You can make a Recipe on-line with a photo album software such as with Shutterfly or Snapfish and share it with future generations!
5. Play simple board/card games for those with cognitive loss
o You can play memory or “matching” games (simple) up to Bridge or Gin Rummy!
o All you need is a regular deck of cards! You can match by suit or color or number depending on the skill level
o Reminiscing games – you can pull ideas on-line but there are great games available such as at the Senior Store.
o Any board game that your child loves grandma will love too. Have a game day marathon!
o For moderate cognitive losses you can use products such as large coloring books, big puzzles or word searches.
6. Music
o Put together a play list of your mother’s favorite tunes
o Play the songs with the whole family present and ask questions about that time period in your mother’s life
o CD’s and Apps available with pre-loaded music for each generation or that specialize in Alzheimer’s such as with Life Music or at the Senior Store
SOURCES : https://www.ericksonresource.com/mothers-day-ideas-to-connect-the-generations/