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We talked to Amanda Lambert and Leslie Eckford, authors of Aging with Care: Your Guide to Hiring and Managing Caregivers at Home, by email and phone about the essentials to get started in caring for an aging parent at home. Read the first part of the Q & A. The rest will follow next week in Part 3.    Question: What’s the most important lesson to remember as any of us start caring for an elderly parent? Answer from Leslie Eckford: Starting out, I learned the lesson that finding a good home caregiving solution requires a respect for balance. Balancing the...

If we are lucky enough to have our parents live to a ripe old age—their 80s, 90s and now centennial years, most likely they will need some or a lot of care. This includes transportation to the grocery store or doctor, help with bathing, cooking, laundry, cleaning, and making beds. It’s a difficult transition even in the best of circumstances. The situation can trigger battles between the generations over money, about not taking medicine, and with the aging parent who tries to remain independent but forgets to turn off the range, leaves the refrigerator door ajar or eats the wrong...

Death is not something we like to talk about much or to be honest, at all.   But as we continue to react to the horrific murder of 17 children and teachers in Parkland, Fla., this past February, we are reminded of all the other mass murders in schools and public places in this country and abroad. And we decided it’s time to address some important issues around the subject. Too often this terrible but incontrovertible fact of life—that we all are going to die, though hopefully in a less traumatic way—is taboo.  As we’ve each sadly learned, death may...

When I was young and most of my friends were starting our careers or in graduate school, we tended to ask for separate checks when dining out. It was just the way we did it then.  However, when my former husband and I began to earn more, we decided it wasn’t worth bringing forth our calculator to figure out if your salmon en croute was more expensive than my burger and fries or what to do about the extra glass of expensive red burgundy you drank versus my virgin tomato juice.  Then there was the matter of the tip. You...

We're going to be somewhat counterintuitive. While so many of us this time of year struggle to come up with our list of resolutions to be healthier, more financially prudent, and certainly kinder, we are here to suggest that it’s okay to indulge. We know what you’re thinking. In theory we concur with the concept of forgoing indulgences. However, when life at times becomes boring and overwhelming with the shootings and shortness of life in our face, we say, “indulge yourself.” Now may be a propitious time as we’re being bombarded with so much information that is making many of us...