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Open World of Elderly Parents With Dementia
I know many older senior citizens who are still going strong. One of my neighbors was still walking a mile or two a day at 99 – and driving to his rental properties two hours away. Unfortunately, I also know several who aren’t doing that great. Their activities have dwindled and their world seems to be shrinking as far as what they can do and see. Whether you are caring for elderly parents with dementia, Parkinson’s Disease, COPD, or other debilitating illnesses, you may feel like their world is shrinking and you want to find ways to brighten up their days and “open their world up” a bit more!
Thinking Outside the Box
My sweet mom overheard me talking about the different states we’ve lived in over the years and the ones I liked the best. She threw in her personal favorite – Hawaii! She and my dad were blessed to live there for nine years and she still misses it! I gently reminded her that wasn’t a practical option for us and she agreed cheerfully. I commented, “I bet you miss that gorgeous scenery.” All of a sudden, that gave me an idea.
Travel Shows
I’ve found travel and home shows for her before – for Hawaii and for other areas including:
and she’s enjoyed those thoroughly. But this time I tried something different.
Amazon Prime Free Option for Elderly Parents
I headed for her TV and went to our Amazon Prime TV channel app that we can use on our TV thanks to Comcast. I think I typed in Hawaii scenery – and up popped a couple of interesting possibilities. We tried Aloha Hawaii Relaxation which is currently free for Amazon Prime members and she really enjoyed it. There was no music, no words – it was like having a window in her room looking into a Hawaiian beach – with the scenery changing every few minutes.
Quiet But Fun Activities Elderly Seniors Enjoy
I left her enjoying that happily and headed to my computer. There I set the search box to PRIME VIDEO and typed in a few choices:
Each of these selections gave me at least one or more intriguing options – that were different than the ones I selected on the TV itself.
Smithsonian Subscription Channel
Later, my mom was talking to her best friend. Her friend had the Smithsonian Channel as part of her lineup and LOVED it. She raved about the travel documentaries she could enjoy on it. I checked with our cable company but that channel wasn’t available to us. Of course, I didn’t stop there. My next stop was Netflix – nope. Then I went to Amazon Prime and HOORAY! They offer it as a subscription channel for a very low price. Plus they give you the first week free to check it out. AND you can start and stop and start and stop as often as you like! Perfect for us! We gave it a try and she LOVES it as much as her friend!
If we hadn’t wanted to subscribe, you can also their shows individually or by season. Since she loved it so much, we just subscribed. If she tires of it, we’ll change to another subscription like Britbox with all her fave English shows. In fact, Amazon Prime has a ton of different channels subscriptions. So far, the only caveat I’ve run across is CBS all access. I would LOVE to get that but at the point in time, you can’t watch it on the TV with our set up. Only on computers, ipads etc. Since that won’t work well for us, I’ll have to bypass it for now. But hopefully that will change as they have the majority of my sweet mom’s favorite shows.
Expanding Their Window View
So now, I have a wide variety of options for her for those days she is tired and doesn’t want a show but would like to look at something different than her normal “window view.” This is definitely on the quieter side of fun activities elderly seniors enjoy. And that’s OK. Particularly for those elderly parents with dementia or other debilitating health issues that keep them primarily housebound – maybe even chair/bed bound for large amounts of time. This is a fun way to open up their “windows” and let them see more of God’s beautiful world. Or perhaps bask in sweet memories of delightful times gone by. A sweet treat for sure!
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