Celebrating and honoring mothers is not a recent practice. Researchers have traced the practice back to the ancient Romans and Greeks. In the 16th century, "Mothering Sunday" was a holiday practiced by Catholic and Protestant churches when people would visit their "mother" church, or the church where they were baptized. This holiday also allowed those to honor their actual mothers by giving them gifts. These holidays are not the "Mother's Day" we are all familiar with today. In the early 20th century, there was a new holiday that was established by a woman named Anna Jarvis who wanted to honor her mother after having passed away. Eventually, this latter tradition is what is now known as "Mother's Day", which is celebrated during the month of May and involves a day where we take time recognize our mothers and the place they have in our lives.

 

For those who wish to celebrate this holiday and would like to recognize their mothers, this holiday provides an amazing opportunity to let them know how much you love them. One aspect of this holiday that does not get mentioned very often is how adult children can express love to their mothers who have a degenerative neurological disorder, like Alzheimer's. Today, we would like to share some ways that family caregivers and adult children can express how much they honor and respect their moms.

 

Letting your mother know that you love them is less about buying them a gift and more about showing how much you care. In fact, if you are caring for your mother who may have a disorder like Alzheimer's, then the best thing you can do to show love and appreciation is through your actions. Consider these examples:

 

Make a Scrapbook: Go through old photographs, like childhood and holiday photos, and compile them in a scrapbook. Not only is this a thoughtful gesture to show your love for your parent, this can also be a way to help your loved one stimulate their mind by reminding them of happy events in their early life. This is also an activity you can do with other family members by combining resources and sharing old photos. One last idea is to have recordings for every photo or page in the album to remind your loved one of events or individuals. One common symptom of degenerative neurological disorders is memory loss, and having different family members record messages can be a great way to make the scrapbook more understandable and meaningful.

 

Comfortable Items: One great gift to give your aging loved one are items that are soft, like pillows, bathrobes, blankets, and so on. This is a very useful gift as your loved one will always need a comfortable sitting or sleeping arrangement. If you are creative, maybe you can even knit your loved one something with a personal design on it.

 

Flowers: Consider buying your aging loved one a flower arrangement. This colorful gift is a nice reminder of the love you have for your mother, and it can also be a great addition to their seating area. Flowers are amazing decorations and they can also give off a pleasant scent.

 

Music: Music reaches deep inside of us, evoking memories we may have forgotten about long ago. Current research is finding that music therapy can be very beneficial for patients with dementia since it helps alleviate stress, stimulates the mind, and evoke happy memories. If your mother is able and feeling up for it, you can even try to get her to dance around with you!

 

We hope that you can use these ideas to show your mother how much you love her this Mother's Day. This holiday should not just be an obligatory, commercial event, but a time that you spend to reflect seriously about those you love and what they mean to you.