
Many siblings have joked about it before: they’re your responsibility one day. But all too often the sad reality is that joke turns into a very real family dispute over elderly parents, as they face declining health and limited mobility. As we aim to collaborate in providing help with elderly parents, what stressors cause these disputes to gather momentum? What practical steps can we take to share the child responsibility for elderly parents? Join us, as we take a deep dive into these questions, as well as how Petalz Mosaic provides a solution to these issues.
What Causes Siblings to Fight Over Elderly Parents?
While finances can certainly be a factor in disputes, all too often these fights between siblings come down to our most precious commodity- time! Most of us lead busy lives, between work, parenting, and household responsibilities, Factor in grandchildren, dance recitals, doctor appointments, walking the dog- the list is virtually endless- and we see that making the time to help with elderly parents is hard! When this responsibility falls primarily on one child, perhaps due to distance or other factors, this becomes an extremely challenging task. In turn, spite and anger from an overwhelmed sibling can manifest as anger and resentment towards their brothers and sisters. This, in turn, can lead to a full-blown family dispute over our elderly parents.
As our parents get older we may find that they need assistance with everyday errands such as grocery shopping, shoveling the snow, mowing the lawn, helping with technology, and taking care of their pets. Some other necessary tasks are helping with getting to doctors’ appointments and administering medications. Coupled with our already busy schedules, these tasks can cause burnout for only one person.
Additional Child Responsibities For Elderly Parents
Another area where our elderly parents often feel neglected is in regard to our time and affection. While we do not want our readers to leave this article feeling guilty, it is important to remember that loneliness is a pandemic that our seniors face. Medical journals are showing that it only contributes to cognitive decline and dementia. Are all siblings remembering to call and say hello, or send a picture or video to help take care of mom and dads emotional needs?
We may feel that if we get on the phone- we will never be able to say goodbye, and that can be a problem when we do not have a lot of time to spare. Again, if this responsibility is falling solely on one child, it will only compound the frustration they may already feel if they are taking care of the day-to-day tasks as well. Our time is precious, and every small thing adds up. When we take into account that mom or dad may not be particularly tech-savvy, this makes finding a solution even harder!
Ways to Recruit Help With Elderly Parents
First and foremost, if we are feeling burnt out, we need to establish open communication with the rest of the family in our network. Work to do this before feelings of resentment turn into a full-fledged family dispute over our elderly parents.
If you are an only child, or the only child willing to help, is there a cousin or grandchild that you could have a frank conversation with, explaining how these responsibilities are too much for one person to sustainably do? By using visuals and calendars, we can give them a better understanding of just how crammed our schedules are! Remember, it is possible that our support network is unaware of how much we are taking on to help our parents.
Once your family understands that you alone can not do all caregiving tasks, come up with a plan. You will need to take into account distance. If one sibling lives further away, could they spend more time sending pictures to ensure your parents feel like the valuable family members that we all know they are? Create a task pool with nearby family to divide up everyday tasks and activities.
Try to approach this from a place of understanding. From our perspective, it may look like we are the only ones providing any assistance to our parents, but try to see this from our sibling’s lives as well, taking into account factors that influence their schedule. Do they have external pressures causing them to feel burnt out as well?
How Petalz Mosaic Helps Siblings Take Care of Their Elderly Parents
Petalz Mosaic recognizes the challenges that siblings face when taking care of elderly parents. We have worked hard to implement these strategies in our own lives, to ensure that every family member feels valued and recognized for their contributions! We have built a user-friendly platform that even the least tech-savvy senior will find a breeze. With its plug-in-and-go capabilities, this simple tablet for seniors does not require configuration. Ultimately, this makes it great for long-distance family members who are not able to help with the setup process.
This easy-to-use platform is safe and secure. It is a private, invite-only network, where scammers are simply not able to even search your parents and exploit them. There are no ads or influencer content- only the content sent, with love, by our network of invited family and friends. You will also find a shared calendar, where tasks can be added to a pool, increasing visibility for our parents needs’ and providing greater access to sharing these tasks more evenly.
Our favorite feature of Petalz Mosaic is the daily message feature. This feature will allow you to customize how often we receive reminders to send our elderly parents a quick message or video. Let’s face it- we aren’t trying to neglect messaging our parents. Life gets in the way and we simply forget. With this feature, we can remember to send our senior parents a small snippet of our day, so that even when we do not have time for a long conversation, we can ensure they feel loved and included.

Petalz Mosaic- Social Media for Sharing With Family
Not only will our aging parents benefit from Petalz Mosaic, but the whole family can find ways to reconnect using our mobile platform. Lately, social media has become less of seeing family posts and more reels from influencers and marketing. Petalz Mosaic- with closed networks- is social media for sharing with family and friends exclusively. These ‘pods’ are a safe place to share pictures and videos of your children and yourselves with the rest of your family.
They say it takes a village to raise a child. We believe it also takes a village to offer our beloved seniors the level of care that they deserve! Let’s work together to help our elderly parents, crush sibling fights, and bring families together!