It’s funny how, sometimes, parent/child roles reverse. As your parent ages, your role switches to a caregiver, a part formerly managed by them. This may, in fact, come into play if your retirement-age parents still smoke. Naturally, you can’t just tell your parents to stop smoking. But you should do all you can to encourage them to quit.
It may behoove you to start the conversation by letting your parents know how much you love and care about them. Your first and foremost concern is for their health, safety, and welfare. From there, things will go differently for each individual, depending on their unique situation, the person in question’s outlook, etc.
When asking parents to stop smoking, one of the first things to do is to make sure that you, yourself, don’t smoke. You may need to take care of business in your own house before you start worrying about how to get them to quit.
Let’s say, however, that you stopped smoking or you never did. How can you convince your parents to give up their smoking habit? Here are some dos and don’ts.
Don’t
These are things that you should avoid. Don’t…
- Nag. Particularly when it comes to smokers, no one likes nagging. In fact, it may have quite the opposite effect you want it to.
- Assume that quitting is easy. Especially if you’ve never had to give it up, you have no idea what it’s like for your parents to give up the highly addictive habit they’ve likely had for years.
- Throw away all their smoking supplies. This is a move that will cause nothing but anger, resentment, and more.
- Get discouraged. It’s easy to get frustrated if your parent doesn’t quit right away or doesn’t agree they should quit in the first place. Keep at it without becoming obsessed. Encourage rather than nag.
Do
Here are things you can try, in order to help your parents stop smoking. Do…
- Let your parents know how you feel. Impress upon them your concern for their health. Be honest.
- Hear them out. You may not agree with everything they have to say, but it’s important you let them tell things the way they see them.
- Give assistance where you can. When people quit smoking, it’s extremely stressful. Relieve your parents’ stress by cooking meals, running some errands for them, doing a few chores around the house, etc.
- Celebrate small victories. If they quit for a day or two, celebrate that. Once they reach one week, celebrate again. One month, two months, three months, etc. – make sure you celebrate every victory.
Encourage Healthy Living For Your Parents: Recommend Regency Pointe For a Healthy Lifestyle
Once you get your parents to stop smoking, you may be able to encourage other healthy changes or new healthy habits. Socialization, physical fitness, healthy eating, and more go a long way toward a fuller, longer life.
Your parent or loved one will be able to enjoy a healthy lifestyle with numerous activities, exercise, events, incredible meals, and so much more, provided by Regency Pointe.
To speak to a representative regarding sales and leasing, please phone 256-269-1919. For all other inquiries, phone 256-456-0016. Feel free to use our convenient online form to open the lines of communication. While we’re on the topic of your parents and assisted living, why not schedule a tour so you can show them all we have to offer?
