Nursing Home Analysis

Having lived in this situation, this video and topic struck home for me. My maternal grandmother lived with my family for the first fifteen years of my life and currently still lives with my mother. This situation has never seemed abnormal, particulate phenomenal or uncommon to me. In my culture (Japanese), it is expected that adult children will take care of their aging parent within their home; often times this is happening in conjunction with raising their own children. To place the care of one parents in the hands of a stranger (e.g. nursing home, assisted living, etc.) would be dishonorable and disrespectful. However, this filial obligation towards co-residence is slowly changing in Japan, particularly with the implementation long-term care insurance for the elderly (Tsutsui, Muramatsu, & Higashino, 2014).

The stain this placed on my mother and our whole family was particularly conspicuous in my parent’s marital relationship; it caused a lot of marital discord. My mother also struggled with my grandmother for autonomy (she called it backseat parenting); my grandmother could be difficult and this caused a good deal of undue stress on her. They would often argue (e.g. how my mother parented, a financial or life choice my grandmother did not agree with, etc.). Some of the rewards were that my siblings and I are very close with my grandmother. For my mother, it provided her with some down time because my grandmother was capable of babysitting my siblings and me, without having to leave