Personally we could never ever guilt trip our children into not living their own lives, dreams and desires and always encourage them to go experience all that life has to offer. This is not a dress rehearsal and none of us get out alive.
To each their own but .........
Rightly or wrongly, our children didn't ask to come into this world, we chose to have them because we wanted that experience in our lives, and there is absolutely nothing we won't do to help and support them even in their 30's, but in the philosophy of "teaching them to fish, not giving them fish".
With that said and done we come from an upbringing going back many years whereby we are all very close knit, and elders over the years have never been placed in assisted living or nursing homes or otherwise. Somehow we've always lead fulfilling lives and kept our elders in the comfort of their homes or that of their children, nieces/nephews. There's always the exceptions with some family members.
If my parents had dreamed of guilting me into being there for them, I would have gone in a heart beat, fortunately they never did, and both mum and dad stayed in their own homes, or living with us until they passed, and as is our family tradition were laid out at home where on their last day before going in the ground they left from and we said our final goodbyes.
There's no right or wrong way to deal with elderly parents/family members and we all need to do what makes us comfortable with no regrets for the remainder of our lives on how we handled it. I was an only child but thankfully had close connections with cousins that looked after dad for a couple of weeks when hubby and I took our honeymoon many years after we were married and could finally afford it. He got diagnosed with oesophageal cancer a month before we were due to leave. He encouraged us to go.
Don't let anyone make you feel guilty, do what you want to do and are happy with - it's your life to live.
It Takes No More Effort To Aim High Than To Aim Low - Reach For The Stars
