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LPT: Everything you buy or make for, or gift to a parent will probably be yours one day or at least your responsibility to sort through.
My dad passed away this year. I have two sisters and a psychotic step mother, and it was up to us to sort through, donate and/or keep the things that belonged to him.
Two things I’ve learned from this:
(1) for those parents who can’t stand getting rid of things, help them while they are alive. It might spark some memories! And create new ones. But if your fam is anything like mine, there’s about 9 things that should be in trash or the donation pile for 1 thing worth keeping. Also, don’t wait until they are already sick or too frail.
(2) be intentional with what you gift, make or buy for your parent. Gifts should make the giftee happy and sometimes those things are meaningless to you, but a lot of times intentional gifting doesn’t have to be. Are you both Star Wars fans? Cause all the Star Wars stuff I gave my dad are in my home now as sometimes painful but other times lovely reminders of him. What I could do without? He honestly didn’t need half of the ‘funny’/‘novelty’ T shirts I gave him over the years.
I don’t mean for any of this to turn into a morbid exercise. No you shouldn’t look around and start chucking things or, when their birthday rolls around, agonize over what you’re not going to want. I just mean to plant a little seed with this post. Particularly if you are in America, which is all I really know and I am painfully aware of how consumeristic we are and dealing with boomer or Gen X parents who have a tendency to hang onto everything.
#entertainment
source
My dad passed away this year. I have two sisters and a psychotic step mother, and it was up to us to sort through, donate and/or keep the things that belonged to him.
Two things I’ve learned from this:
(1) for those parents who can’t stand getting rid of things, help them while they are alive. It might spark some memories! And create new ones. But if your fam is anything like mine, there’s about 9 things that should be in trash or the donation pile for 1 thing worth keeping. Also, don’t wait until they are already sick or too frail.
(2) be intentional with what you gift, make or buy for your parent. Gifts should make the giftee happy and sometimes those things are meaningless to you, but a lot of times intentional gifting doesn’t have to be. Are you both Star Wars fans? Cause all the Star Wars stuff I gave my dad are in my home now as sometimes painful but other times lovely reminders of him. What I could do without? He honestly didn’t need half of the ‘funny’/‘novelty’ T shirts I gave him over the years.
I don’t mean for any of this to turn into a morbid exercise. No you shouldn’t look around and start chucking things or, when their birthday rolls around, agonize over what you’re not going to want. I just mean to plant a little seed with this post. Particularly if you are in America, which is all I really know and I am painfully aware of how consumeristic we are and dealing with boomer or Gen X parents who have a tendency to hang onto everything.
#entertainment
source
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