Why Is Your Senior Resistant to Talking about Giving up Driving?

If you’ve tried to talk about whether your elderly family member should be driving or not, you might have found the conversation shut down. Your senior may have some extremely powerful reasons that she’s not excited about giving up her driving privileges.

Elderly Care in Riverhead NY: Senior Driving

She Doesn’t Want to Lose Independence

Whether she’s good at driving or not, it’s a way for your senior to be able to go where she wants to go when she wants to go there. Giving up driving means that she will now be dependent on someone else, likely you, to go wherever she wants to go and that’s a scary feeling.

She Doesn’t Want to Be a Burden to Anybody

Along with feeling dependent on you, your senior will probably start to worry that she’ll be a burden. She knows that it’s not always fun or easy to take someone where they want to go and she won’t want to cut into what you have to do. The good news is that there are other options available, ranging from public transportation options to hiring home care providers who can drive for her.

She Doesn’t Want to Be Alone

One big reason that your senior might enjoy driving still is that she can go to where other people are. In fact, she may spend entire days out and about simply because she doesn’t want to be alone. Home care providers can be extremely helpful in this sense, too. Even if your senior wants to stay at home, having a companion there can make an incredible difference for your aging adult.

She Doesn’t Want to Be Stuck in One Place

The other side of the spectrum could be that your aging adult doesn’t actually go all that many places, but she knows that she could. Take away the keys to the car and she no longer has that option and that can be extremely scary. Faced with no other option besides staying at home, your senior can start to feel a bit of cabin fever.

If your senior is resistant, keep trying to have this talk. You want to talk about it now before it’s a decision that is taken out of her hands entirely.

If you or an aging loved one is considering hiring elderly care in Riverhead, NY, call the caring staff at Artful Home Care today at 631-685-5001.