It appears that recently there may be any other assisted living community being constructed on just about each empty lot in town. What does this suggest to the destiny? For the instantaneous destiny, it is superb. We Boomers who’ve no time, no preference, no call to welcome our elder mother and father into our personal homes have somewhere to place Mom and/or Dad as they need increasingly help. But in the lower back of our minds, are not we truly wondering, “Gee, Mom and Dad are going to find it irresistible here. It has all of the facilities they could ask for. But there may be no way in h&%# I’m ever going to live right here!”
Now be honest. Isn’t that exactly what you are wondering proper now? Boomers truly do not take delivery of the concept of assisted 오피가이드 residing, and from latest research, it would seem that some shape of communal residing is making its manner back to the leading edge. Be it rental, townhouse, duplex, or maybe a unmarried circle of relatives domestic in an adults-only community, isn’t this wherein we’re headed?
Way lower back when (in the 50s and 60s), communes had been where all the hippies headed. This type of housing failed to die, it in reality grew up to be co-housing – a brand new type of participatory community that is attracting Boomers as they input their 60s. Cohousing gadgets are individually owned (like condos). But citizens of those green groups share communal resources and facilities, all of which enables them be energy green.
In 2003, there had been 60 such communities throughout the U.S. By 2008, there were as a minimum a hundred, with 300 more in development (Columbia News Service, five/eleven/08). These homes range from the Songia Co-housing Community’s eleven acre website outdoor Seattle to the two-block Eco-Village residences in Los Angeles (supply: Iconoculture, 8/12/08).
What’s ahead?
Assisted dwelling communities, beware! The current senior housing version – from home to assisted dwelling to nursing domestic – may not cut it for many Boomers. They’ve had a sneak peek at the same time as helping their parents, and want no a part of it. Co-housing allows them to rewrite the destiny by coming full circle with their youthful ideals. And, isn’t always that what all Boomers attempt for – for all time younger?
Boomers are becoming as eco-friendly as Gen Y and the Millennials. No longer a luxury, building inexperienced is swiftly becoming vital, and sustainable housing is the brand new wave.
But that isn’t always the most effective purpose Boomers are rejecting the modern assisted residing model. We are an awful lot too impartial to ever take delivery of a regimen of bingo on Monday, dry meatloaf each Wednesday night time, and sing-alongs on Sunday afternoon. We in no way were a group of one mind and I doubt if we ever could be. We see ourselves as individuals, now not as a part of the herd. Therefore, living in a putting of regimented ordinary will by no means be our style.
The answer
My non-public opinion is that those who try to decide “what to do with all the ones Boomers,” need to step returned and think again their ideas. Boomers need alternatives, Boomers want choices, Boomers want to make life-style selections based totally now not only on their monetary health, but on their mental and physical fitness as nicely. When the time comes that we are no longer able to keep our unbiased freedom, our help may are available in many sizes, shapes and styles. They can be co-housing, a small adult community that sets apart one domestic to be paid for by means of community residents and “loaned” to a caregiver couple. It might be numerous unmarried elder Boomers selecting to are living together underneath one roof – all with their personal private area, however with communal areas to counteract isolation.
There are many techniques of fixing that driving question of, “What will we do with them?” Some currently exist, but leave it as much as a Boomer to plan new techniques of solving the hassle – the ones techniques being perfect and convenient for them.