Patti Davis Quotes

In America, people rarely stay in the town where they grew up, rarely stay in close proximity to their parents throughout their lives. You rarely find parents in their old age being taken care of by their children.

My parents are aging and there are difficult issues. It's strange to have children at the beginning of life and parents nearing the end.

My father is not that comfortable with children, but he's a terrific father for an adult.

Even if your parents don't have Alzheimer's or aren't in a wheelchair, your parents get old - if you're lucky to have parents who live for a long time. It's a challenge, and it's difficult and lovely and touching and awful and ghastly and real.

You just can't move back with your mom at 64. It just doesn't quite work.

One problem with age is that patience begins to ebb.

If you live long enough, you'll experience everything.

My children are now all grown. Some are in their 60s. But when they call and I answer the phone, they say, 'How are you?' And before I can answer, they ask, 'Is Mother there?'

Old people are often impatient, but for what?

I have nine children... and one of them is an invalid. Her mother is obliged to take her away in the winter, and when one bird is off the nest, the other has to go on.

You learn how to take care of people from the women in your life.

As well as writing novels and doing short-order journalism, I am also the full-time carer of my husband, who has Alzheimer's. Each day feels like a race that must be run.

I went from resenting my mother-in-law to accepting her, finally to appreciating her. What appeared to be her diffidence when I was first married, I now value as serenity.

I get so annoyed at people not looking after their parents. The deal is when we are growing up they look after us and as they grow older we look after them. That's the deal.

A lot of older parents worry about being older parents. I hear people say, 'I don't want to be too old to play baseball with my son.' They worry that their kids will be embarrassed by their parents' age.

Not only is our love for our children sometimes tinged with annoyance, discouragement, and disappointment, the same is true for the love our children feel for us.

Alzheimer's caregivers are heroes.

I think as I have got older, I have got a bit more relaxed, although you might not think that if you heard me screaming at my kids.

I'm in the process of convincing my parents to sell me their house so I can just live in my childhood bedroom forever. I figure it might make me age slower.

Be nice to your children. After all, they are going to choose your nursing home.

I have been asked how I grow old so easily. The answer is: I give all my time to it.

One of the jokes among our family was that whenever Dad went to the movies, he insisted on getting his senior citizen's discount. It was laughable to view him as a traditional senior citizen; he was one of the most robust people I ever knew. Until, very suddenly, he wasn't.

Dementia is such a terrifying thing for all of us, and we are particularly bad at coping with old people in this country.

Mothers and daughters generally have fairly complex relationships, and ours was made much more so by Mother's illness. She had Parkinson's disease, which was not diagnosed for a long time... All that made me very self-protective, because for one thing, I didn't want to get trapped.

I have cared for loved ones nearly all my life, so when I look in the mirror, I see a caregiver looking back at me. It began when I was 12 years old and my father became ill. Taking care of him took a toll on our entire family, my mother most of all.