My folks got tons of the political stuff & senior notch babies stuff, mom was in that group. I looked up a bunch of the outfits sending stuff & 1 woman is responsible for at least a dozen of these organizations. Senior Collation? I think was 1 & Americans for Seniors, names like that, I still have the list somewhere I think, but some site gave the amounts she takes in for each of the 12 names of organizations. They all sound very American or include "senior" in the name. She gets over 1 million to several million dollars a year for each organization & it is legal. The gov't said "they think she has 1 lobbyist" another site said lobbyist is her daughter but they didn't know if she ever showed up in front of Congress. Mom stopped all checks & after a couple of months the mail dropped off dramatically. This all started when she was sending a local politician checks years ago.

This topic comes up quite often and is a good topic. It's often not easy to confront someone who shouldn't drive, but then again, it's also called being responsible. What I don't understand is that most people seem to have no aversion to taking someone's keys if they're drunk. (Brainwashed by MADD I suppose.) But too timid to take their keys when they're a danger by their driving. Splain that one to me Lucy... I do not agree with disabling a car. There's legal ways to do this and committing a crime is a coward's way out. Plus they'll just get it fixed. What makes a person think that's going to do anything? Working with the police is good, but you can't expect them to always be able to drop everything and send a car to search for them and follow them. You'd be better off following them yourself and call in that there's an erratic driver if that's the case. There's an independence thing, a bit of an "ego" with some, just self-pride and satisfaction that you can take care of yourself. I understand that. And I know some are more bullheaded about it than others. Age by itself doesn't bring wisdom or maturity. Sometimes they won't acknowledge that they're not what they used to be. I see a lot of older people say stupid things and throw tantrums. At the same time, age by itself doesn't mean you're a bad driver though either. I know some elderly drivers I'd ride with before riding with some younger ones. The biggest mistake IMO is people don't have their parents and others ride with them often enough to get them used to riding with others. I know I seldom ride with others, I usually do the driving or I drive myself and it's been that way since I started driving. It's a very uncomfortable feeling to not have access to a vehicle when you've been this way. For instance, if the car is in the shop it's very uncomfortable to not have it. Yes it's silly but it's true. Even with the snowstorm I was essentially snowed in until the driveway was cleared. Again, a very uncomfortable feeling and it's not that you want to go anywhere, or need to go anywhere, it's the fact that you CAN'T if you want to. With some it feels like a punishment just because they're not used to it. I hope that if I get to a point where I shouldn't drive, that I'll realize it and accept it. Better yet, some buxom young honey wants to come and drive me around and take care of me in my old age..... LOL As Red Green says, "we're all in this together". People owe it to themselves and others to stop when it's right and people owe it to themselves and others to say hey, you shouldn't be driving anymore.

I do have power of attorney for my mother, she is in a nursing home now and her house sold and all assets used to pay for the nursing home fees. There is no money left to pay for anything. At $13,000 a month the money goes quickly. Everything is gone which is why we are in the process of getting the medicaid application started. For years I tried to convince her to sell her house and move into a senior apartment, and then, if she declined further, assisted living. She refused to leave her home, and I could not force her. Eventually, there was no choice, but my sister did take her in for a few years until things got to the point where she needed 24 hr a day nursing home care. I can't speak for other elderly folks, but my parents became extremely stubborn as they aged. . We affectionately call Mom our 93 yr old toddler. I've learned a few things from this that I intend to do for my kids. I think its good advice for all parents as they approach old age: Sell my house when I can no longer take care of it. have all my important documents in one place and inform my kids where it is. take good care of my health, lose weight, stay active, keep social activities up so I can stay well and independent longer 4) Inform my kids I don't want them to take me in or assume responsibility of my home or my personal care. We will get our elder care policies so they don't have to worry about it. 5) Have a Power of attorney, will, DNR documents (already done this) My father is still in good health and mentally sharp but he also refuses to sell his house and expects us to do the work on it. But I have learned that its ok to say no, if he wants to remain in his house and has the money to pay for repairs, he is going to have to hire people to do it, we cannot do this anymore. We're tired, we aren't getting any younger either and its time to focus on our own home now. Dad refuses to discuss anything related to his aging, his funeral wishes, where and what he has, etc. I've told him do not choose me as power of attorney or executor if you do not let me know these things now. I don't want any part of trying to dig through this stuff again without any knowledge of where to begin. I told him I will leave it all to his lawyer if he doesn't give me more information. Much as these things are uncomfortable to talk about, the fact is we are all going to die, many of us will need extended care so the people we designate to take charge of these things need to have the information beforehand so they can make the right decisions. Leaving your kids in the dark until something happens is just wrong.

@ aputernut Was that a stream-of-consciousness moment ? There's like about a 100 words there, with no punctuation, no sentence capitalization, nothing . . . How are we supposed to parse something like that ? lol Btw, the way that link was made, it only goes to ehow.com . I did take a look though . . . as you probably know, ehow.com is by no means a tech site. They have people employed to dream up things to write "how-to" articles about, a lot of it being almost copy & paste. They may be correct on some points, but it's hardly a definitive or authoritative site for tech info.