Old people and their problems
Probably most of us don’t pay much attention to problems of elderly people because we don’t think about old age - young people are too young, people in middle age are too busy – they don’t have enough time to think about it, people who are just before old age don’t want to think about problems they will have in a future. But one day most of us would face with that problem, so maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if we thought about it for a while. So let’s take a closer look at elder people.
First, unfortunately very common problem of elderly people is loneliness. In the most cases elderly people live alone, it’s connected with new style of life which is common especially in towns in high developed countries, because in villages in Poland e.g. whole families very often live in the same house. Children leave homes, set their own families, start to work and very often they don’t have time to visit their parents, some people just leave parents and don’t care about them. Sometimes children send parents to old peoples home, they claim that it would be better for them there (better protection, more people in the same age etc) but it’s not the best idea to put someone in such home, because such old person feels terribly. I wouldn’t like to be in such situation. Many old people, because of loneliness, keep animals at home. Cat or dog sometimes is the only one relative. There is a saying, that dog is the best friend of human being – and I suppose that there’s a grain of truth in it. Old people who own pets have some duties connected with it, they have to feed it, walk wit it, so they fell needed. But is it good for pets?
Next problem I’d like to mention is health. Many old people suffer from different diseases, they have problems with walking, they are not able to do everything, they need protection (to make a shopping – because they can’t carry heavy things etc.). They have to visit doctors very often and buy a lot of different medicines and that is connected with their next problem - I mean financial problems. They live in bad conditions because their income is strictly limited. They are forced to choose what to buy – food or medicines - because they simply don’t have enough money for very expensive medicines (of course it’s not a view of whole society, there are rich old and happy people too).
Many old people have out-of date outlooks. That’s young people don’t understand their grandparents. The generation gap often is a case of quarrels between them, old persons can’t understand e.g. that their grandchildren spend a lot of time playing computer games so they try to persuade them no to do that – and it’s very difficult to explain “ancient” grandparents that using computer is essential.
I haven’t imagined me as an old person. Maybe it would sound funny, but I think that then I would have time to play computer games – it would be interesting because I haven’t got enough time to play computer games since about two years, and as I remember I was enjoying doing it.
Old age is the most difficult period of human being life. Elder people often feel lonely, they suffer from many diseases so their relatives can’t forget about them – meet parents as often as it’s possible (if they don’t live together). Young people must show the old one that they are not unnecessary, because it’s the most important. Life e.g. 80 –old men or women is very difficult so relatives should encourage them, help them to get through their problems.
Helaa