DAD MADE US PROMISE...

(A promise which should never be made, and must often be broken)

I have written about this topic in the past, but every time I see the commercial appear on television, I am inclined to write about it again.

Perhaps you’ve seen the advertisement which has as its punch line,

“Dad made us promise we wouldn’t put mom in a nursing home.”

The name of the in-home nursing care agency escapes me but this, in itself, is of no importance. But I can tell you, it infuriates me every time that ludicrous, God-awful commercial airs.

My father neither made me promise I wouldn’t put my mother in a nursing home, nor did it, apparently, ever occur to him to do so. After sustaining a stroke, he was actually the first to be placed in a skilled nursing environment. A couple years later I was forced to follow the same course of action on behalf of my mother. Both passed away in the same nursing home.

Neither of my parents were good candidates for in-home medical care, and current limitations related to Medicaid benefits make it all but impossible for the elderly to remain at home after sustaining extreme physiological and psychological changes in their health; short of the existence of an extremely large bank account.

But to return to the implication of the commercial.

It is obvious this agency has an agenda, and that agenda is marketing their product and the profitability thereof. And it is apparent that the emotion of choice is unadulterated, raw guilt.

“Dad made us promise we would keep mom at home.”

The jest of it seems to be that the now dearly departed father elicited this promise from his grown children before he passed away.

I, for one, am grateful for the excellent care afforded to my parents by a local skilled nursing facility, and I absolutely reject the agenda, and abject guilt promoted by this in-home care agency.

Their tactics are absolutely reprehensible.

By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 75, Copyright pending

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