Family

3 Tips For Taking Your Kids To Visit An Assisted Living Facility

If you have elderly loved ones who are living in assisted living facilities, it can be extremely exciting for them to see you and your family when you come to visit. However, many parents wonder how their children will do if they bring them to visit these types of facilities. But with the right preparation, you can make visits to assisted living facilities enjoyable and safe for all members of your family.

To help you see how this can be done, here are three tips for taking your kids to visit an assisted living facility. 

Prepare Them For The Differences

For children that have never been to assisted living facilities before, or who haven’t spent much time in other health care environments, going to an assisted living facility can be scary and uncomfortable if they don’t know what to expect. Because of this, you should give them as much information as you can to help them know what to expect and how this experience will be different from other experiences they’ve had in the past. 

In assisted living facilities, there will probably be people that your kids haven’t seen before and smells that they haven’t been exposed to before. So by sharing with your kids what they will see, how the people might look and act, and what smells they might smell upon entering the facility, you can help them be ready for this experience. 

Let Them Know Their Presence Is Appreciated

With all of your explanations about what to expect when visiting an assisted living facility, your kids might be scared or nervous. And while these feelings are normal, you should try to convey to your kids that having them at this facility will be very much appreciated by your elderly loved one.

Not only will your specific elderly loved one likely love seeing you and your children, but the other residents of the facility will also likely enjoy seeing new and friendly faces. Share with your children that many people in these facilities aren’t able to see their families much, so seeing people who remind them of their children or grandchildren can help to make them feel happy, too. 

Stay Close To Them

Although you and your kids might be excited about being able to visit your loved one and brighten the day of other people in the assisted living facility, actually being in the environment can be a lot for your kids to cope with. Knowing this, you should try to stay close to them throughout your visit. If you notice something happening that’s beginning to make your child uncomfortable or scared, do your best to remove them from that situation so they aren’t too nervous to come back and visit again at a later time. 

If you want to take your kids with you when you visit an elderly loved one in an assisted living facility, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you prepare for this new experience. 

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