Has the thought ever crossed your mind that you don’t know enough about your parents? If so, you’re not alone, there are plenty of others out there seeking ways to learn about their parents’ childhoods and adult lives.
Putting time aside to engage in meaningful conversations with your parents is shown to improve overall communication. Inquiring about their own history is a wonderful place to start this journey.
Whether they live independently, in assisted living, or are part of retirement communities, your parents are sure to have plenty of stories to tell.
Listening to these stories is not only rewarding for you, but it’s rewarding for your parents too, and it benefits them in a lot of ways.
Memory Care
If your parents are beginning to, or have already lost significant chunks of their memory, asking them questions about their life is a fun, gratifying way to engage in memory care.
Keeping it simple works well. The conversation might start by showing your parents photographs of them as children or surrounded by their family members.
Watching your parents remember parts of their lives that they may have forgotten, like seeing their eyes light up or feeling them radiate joy, can be incredibly rewarding.
Building of Traditions
One of the reasons why storytelling is so important lies within its power to build traditions in families and for generations to come. Telling stories makes the experience being spoken about immersive for everyone listening.
With that said, asking your parents about their lives doesn’t have to be a one-time thing.
Since storytelling is an art and has the potential to establish a meaningful practice, consider getting together with your parents once a month to ask them about their upbringing. Traditions bring a sense of belonging to those involved.
Additionally, it can be especially rewarding if your parents are in assisted living or living on their own because, they can look forward to spending time with their children.
Development of Family History
Perhaps when you were growing up, you didn’t know a single thing about the lives your parents lived before they brought you into the world. If that’s the case, that’s okay, but it’s a great reason to ask them about their lives.
Why? Because with the information gathered from listening to their stories, you can develop your family’s history from before you were born. Aside from that being completely awesome, knowing the history can be useful when needed.
There’s a chance your parents may bring up difficult moments from earlier in their individual lives.
They did live in a different time than you, so this is totally understandable. However, did you know that children and adolescents actually absorb a lot from hearing these moments?
So, if you end up having children and wanting them to know about your life, tell them the honest, difficult moments you may have had. Be sure to tell them in a way that’s appropriate for their level of understanding.
Ask Your Parents About Their Lives
It is beyond rewarding to sit with your parents over a meal and casually live through their eyes for a while. Through storytelling, you can immerse yourself in the many moments from their past that they share with you.
Additionally, you can assist in strengthening their memory and develop a family history with roots deeper than you ever thought.
Take the time and ask your parents about their lives. They have a great abundance of stories, experiences, and memories to tell you. Need help figuring out where to start? Contact us today at Sholom.
