Keep The Old Home Phone Service For Elderly Parents

By Kevin Collins


Cellular telephones have taken over the world, and many very young people do not realize that the land-line system still works. Small screens, short battery life, and constantly updating applications make use of modern tech daunting for some people. An old-fashioned, tethered line may be the very best phone service for elderly men and women.

For most older people, it is simply what they are accustomed to using. Whether or not they have a degenerative condition such as Alzheimer disease, forgetfulness is a part of aging. This makes it challenging to learn new things, and many people may not be able to retain things learned more recently.

The old home phones had much larger buttons that were easier to read than any compact, hand-held tool in use now, including the flip phones still popular with many men. Not only that, but many of them had buttons that would light up when you lifted the phone from the cradle. This makes it much easier for an person to make an emergency call, especially if they are in a dark room, or have some form of vision impairment.

With so many older people stuck in homes, apartments, or retirement communities, their need for cellular technology is nonexistent. Many people reach a point where they can no longer drive at all, and they prefer to sit comfortably when talking to their friends and loved ones. Eventually this infrastructure may fall apart, but for this generation, it does continue to exist.

Most of us remember our kitchen telephone being loud enough to startle us even when there were groups of people all speaking at once. Older people find this volume to be helpful when it comes to getting to a call in time. Rather than having your parent or grandparent running in circles trying to locate a vibrating device, a loud telephone centrally located in their living space helps everyone be more at ease.

If a parent or grandparent us not able to hear the ring, find the device, or answer it promptly then it ceases to be a reliable communication device. Without reliability, we are forced to worry about our loved one needlessly. It just makes sense to provide them with tools that are familiar to them.

We may even think we are helping them by attempting to teach them how to use newer technologies. We tend to be pushy with parents or grandparents sometimes, convinced that they will see how much better this technology is if they will simply listen to us. The fact is, whether they are unable or unwilling to learn it, our insistence that they catch up with the times is rude.

Many of us will tend to become rigid and set in our way as we age, and change can be frightening. Attempting to force someone to use something they are afraid of benefits no one, and may be a manifestation of our own hubris. This is especially true if the device is being provided to them for their own safety and well being.




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