A couple of my relatives live in, ah, homes... and to be perfeclty honest, it doesn't seem like a bad deal. In fact, it is basically a "dorm" for old people. They have their own small apartments, get immediate health care, don't have to cook for themselves if they don't want to, they go on day trips... think college.
I suspect things might have turned out differently if we happened to live much closer, or if various parts of my family were closer, but overall I don't think it is always a "bad" thing. I think there are also some pretty big differences between different types of places to stash old people, and a lot of that depends on what they are capable of doing etc.
Edit: My gf and I would probably get into a huge argument about things like this, but then again I have to ask what *I* would want out of my kids. Do I want them to have to take care of me when I get old? Hell no, I would want them to have their own lives. Would I take care of them just as well as my parents have taken care of me? Of course. She however feels like she has some overwhelming obligation to her parents... I disagree - parents have the _choice_ to have kids, but kids don't have the _choice_ to have parents. If you have kids, you support them, etc, as much as you can. You should do that BECAUSE you chose to have kids, not BECAUSE you expect them to do the same for you when you get old. Yeesh, to me that just seems awful.
I suspect things might have turned out differently if we happened to live much closer, or if various parts of my family were closer, but overall I don't think it is always a "bad" thing. I think there are also some pretty big differences between different types of places to stash old people, and a lot of that depends on what they are capable of doing etc.
Edit: My gf and I would probably get into a huge argument about things like this, but then again I have to ask what *I* would want out of my kids. Do I want them to have to take care of me when I get old? Hell no, I would want them to have their own lives. Would I take care of them just as well as my parents have taken care of me? Of course. She however feels like she has some overwhelming obligation to her parents... I disagree - parents have the _choice_ to have kids, but kids don't have the _choice_ to have parents. If you have kids, you support them, etc, as much as you can. You should do that BECAUSE you chose to have kids, not BECAUSE you expect them to do the same for you when you get old. Yeesh, to me that just seems awful.
