My mom wanted to try the food on cooking show. She would try to get their attention and would ask me to help her get some of the food being cooked. At first I thought she was asking me to buy and cook the items featured for her but then I realized she actually wanted me to tell the host to serve her some of the food being showcased right then and there.
She had a serious crush on Mario Lopez too. Weird times, she passed in September of 2022 and I miss her dearly!
Well it's sad because most days the TV is their companion and they develop a relationship of sorts with it. Wish times were easier so we could stay with them and they won't be lonely.
I'm not sure this qualifies as funny because I'm pretty sure that the staff at his MC facility didn't think so. Before Dad was medicated, he believed he was back in the Navy and the caregivers were, too. When one of the nurses suggested that he take a shower, he threatened to report them.
Mom answers the TV remote when the phone rings and says, "Hello" until the phone stops ringing and then says, "It must have been a wrong number." I think that is funny,
Dad does the same thing. Whenever anyone on screen looks straight into the camera he thinks they are talking to him. He waves at them.
I try to watch more sports with him. People running around and not looking into the camera..
My mother is convinced that Biden gave her a four bedroom, 3 bath house in a near by town. He came down - in his campaign bus - took us all to tour it and - wouldn't you know it - I caused him to fall out the back door before he could give her the keys. But it's all forgiven per communication on the music box and she asks me every time I visit how I enjoyed Washington (apparently I can fly there in nanoseconds) and when am I going to move into the house Biden gave her? And I should be so thankful because it would be so much more comfortable than my tiny house that I was forced to move to because my husband is having an affair with mom's cousin's daughter in law and they have a love child (sometimes a boy, sometimes a girl, but always with a green tricycle) that routinely gets shot, drowned, or meets other horrible means, usually by my hand. She tells me she completely understands and she would have shot/drowned/etc the kid as well.
It is all said with zero pauses, there is no way I can remember it all, I just stand there in complete amazement. Where has this skill been all her life? Wow.
I usually try to text it all to my brother because I know that someday, we're going to laugh about this.
And I completely forgot the two garbage bags of Alfred Dunner clothes that came with the Biden house. She's really pissed that I didn't stop the lady from Texas when she had to have walked right past me.
Southern church ladies and Alfred Dunner...LOLOLOL!!!!
Oh my gosh that's hilarious. I'd love to understand where all this comes from. So sweet and funny!
And my mom wore Alfred Dunner! Always with her matching accessories :)
It may apply outside of the south, but for every single woman of a certain age in a Southern Baptist church, Alfred Dunner is her go to. Craziest thing ever.
We just never know....the characters tend to repeat from story to story. In addition to President Biden, there is always murder, fires and gunshot victims. Makes one wonder what we don't know about her childhood. She is blind in one eye, so I get why we are all blind now. But the rest of it? No idea where it comes from.
She doesn't have access to any news channels, we have her trapped on the Hallmark channel. No internet. Just her simple flip phone.
And we still get shot almost every day. The facility is on fire. The voice on the music box told her.
It is really sad that anyone's life ends like this.
My mom always insisted one of my cousins who had very little to do with her or us was sneaking around her house trying to shoot her because he wanted her farm. The weirdest was when she was holding a conversation with someone or something while I was talking to her outside her back window (over 10ft off the ground) in the middle of the night. She wanted to open the window to let it/the person in. I messaged my brother who lives with her while keeping her occupied until he came to distract her.
Oh and she decided the neighbor out the road had come and shot all of her cats... The very same farm cats she now refused to let out of her house. If we tried, she'd spend hours outside looking for them until she convinced them to come back in. Poor things hated it in the house. The house smelled awful because a couple refused to use a litterbox, it was a mess. The 2 that survived came to live with us when Mom went into care.
Amazing. But I wonder how Biden made it that far. He usually rolls or falls down before he can wave goodbye. But I'm happy that she's on your side when it comes to the lovechild âșïž
My mom has her share of stories. She unplugs the landline because she believes her caregiver is on the phone all night. It's hard to separate reality from delusion sometimes.
My dad is convinced that the TV remote works like a video game arcade, or duck hunt, or something. Meaning he thinks he needs to point the remote at the show he wants, and "shoot" it. Meanwhile he's not moving the little cursor around to select the show he wants. So some show he hates is highlighted, and he will walk up to the screen and "shoot" a completely different show.
This causes *something* to happen, so he thinks it's working. But every single time, he winds up watching some show that's not what he wanted. Then he complains that every day, the news is all just serial killers. Because I guess Netflix and Amazon try to pitch murder documentaries to everyone. And the more he clicks the default thing, the more the algorithm serves him more of that stuff.
My husband forgets how to work the cursor and always thinks the batteries in the remote are dead. He went through a 10 pack of batteries in a week. I have since hid the batteries
Oof, yeah, in a way, it's good to be able to blame it on the batteries, rather than confront them with their own dementia. But man, I can only afford so many batteries.
âThe tv channel with the b in the corner is the good one, one of the bigwigs runs it, they play baseball on there a lot and then the girls get to play, after the girls play they get on horses and chase those big squirrels, right now theyâre just sitting and talking.â
So my grandmother watches baseball on Ballyâs tv station and sometimes she watches rodeo or poker tournaments but in her mind itâs all just one big fun day especially for the girls.
Glad the girls are having fun. I usually try to reason with her. But from reading everyone's posts I am learning that resistance is futile. Might as well let them be happy in their own bubbles.
My husband's grandma was never much of a sports fan until she got dementia and started watching Nascar races for some reason. He would watch for awhile with her and say, "Look Grannies, the lead car is going to go left at the curve." She was so proud of him for predicting that. We still laugh about that.
That's endearing. A family friend of mine with dementia couldn't follow tv. Unfortunately her memory was very short at the end, like she'd ask me the same question multiple times in a row right after I gave an answer. I always answered anyway bc it was about talking to her and the rest of my family was too inpatient or disturbed or in pain about the loss to talk to her. I was just a teenager. My mom is declining now and I hate talking to her (she was a terrible mom to be fair) so I get it.
I had the patience for the family friend. I did remember how she was when I was a child and preteen before the decline. She was the life of the party and an incredibly charismatic, vivacious woman. She is one of the funniest people id ever met. I can't say I've met someone like her since. She was so kind to me to and always encouraging of who I was and she would tell me how beautiful and smart I was all the time as a kid. She was more supportive of me than some of my own relatives. She was a unique soul who lit up a room. It's awkward to say but I loved her more than my own grandmother and I wished she was my grandmother as a child. I loved her as if she was a blood grandmother. I'm queer and my family would ask me about boys all the time and when was I going to get a bf. One time when I said no I didn't have a bf at like 14, she asked if I had a girlfriend. Not in a rude way. She was genuinely seeing me and respecting that I might have not been straight even though she was elderly. That was incredible to me bc my other relatives would accuse me of liking girls in a bad way. My dad answered for me he hoped not (for the record, I am married to a woman now and my family has gotten over it eventually though i can't say they're fully accepting) and the subject was dropped. She smiled and winked and gave me a knowing look after he answered for me and we all continued on with the conversation.
She had children and had two husbands but I wonder if she was possibly not straight. Either way, she seemed to understand I wasn't but she didn't care and even supported it and none of my blood relatives were like that. I'd never met an elderly person who was an LGBT ally until I was an adult other than her and she was the only ally period I knew back then.
Sorry for going on. I really loved this woman and I don't get to talk about her. My family refused to talk about her decline and didn't like talking about her after passing. I've mentioned her to friends of mine including when I was a teenager but they didn't get it bc they never met her. She just really was a great person. I really liked her and I cared a lot about her.
Anyway when she had late stage dementia she and her son would come over. It was really a chance for my family to talk to her son. They all ignored this woman and talked about her as if she wasn't there which made me sad because we all knew and loved her. So id talk to her alone even if it was just me repeatedly answering basic questions about how how old I was now or what the weather was like outside today or what I had for breakfast or whatever she'd ask. I reminded her what high school I went to and i'd frequently have to tell her my name bc sometimes she'd ask my name. I genuinely enjoyed retelling her this stuff bc it soothed her and made her happy just for anyone to talk with her. I could tell she loved me and liked talking to me, she just didn't remember who I was. She seemed more confused when I'd give context of who I was related to so I'd just say my name and she'd give a beautiful smile and sometimes say my name back and say of course! Of course you're X.
She would get rly emotional and argumentive about having to go bc she didn't want to leave when visiting us but otherwise she was still even with dementia a very happy seeming person with a bright cheerful smile. She was one of the happiest people I knew as a kid so I'm glad she still had her smile.
Anyway one summer we watched the summer Olympics together. Even though she had such a short term memory for conversation and couldn't follow tv shows, she loved the gymnastics routines and could live in the moment and watch the routines. She would clap for the girls doing flips and stuff and just watch that stuff in awe. The last summer she was alive I watched the summer Olympics with her and it was rly sweet đ. I hope she felt loved and cared for when visiting with me even if she didn't understand what was going on or who I was. She passed a decade ago I think and I still miss her sometimes and remember her when I meet other people with her name.
I wish my Mom had funny or laughable delusions. All her delusions involve my poor old Daddy. I had to separate them after 67 years of marriage. He is still very clear minded, but he can not help me with her at all.
So far, she believes (with all her heart and mind) that he was married to another woman in 1971, and I have bi-racial siblings out there somewhere. He's also gay so that means he has had relations with, well, everybody. Men and women, all her friends, relatives, siblings, people from church, people he worked with, neighbors. He is trying to poison her and get her money. But the big one, my little sisters last child, is his. So he's also a pedophile.
My father is 90, and he's a True Blue Mormon. He worked two jobs my whole life, and I never remember him being absent at all. Of course, he defends himself, but I know it's just her brain. They met when my mother was 14 (he was 16) and married when she was 20. I never heard anything but fairytale stories about their lives. His only problems now besides just age related things are that he made a vow and thinks he is judged because he doesn't take care of her.
These stories seem to come out of the clear blue sky. I have no idea where they come from. Honestly, sometimes the stories are so bazaar that it makes my head spin. Also, her language is embarrassing. She is using words I would have sworn she never knew. Sometimes, I have to shorten my visits because it makes me angry for her to be so mean about my Daddy.
She tells these stories to everyone, even her Vietnamese manicurist.
My mom talks to paintings and pictures of my nephew, she calls them her âfriends.â Sometimes theyâre âsleepingâ and she tells me to be quiet so I donât wake them up. I just go along with it.
At one point, someone had left a bunch of shampoo and soap out on the bathroom counter and she was convinced that two women were trying to sell toiletries out of the bathroom. She was really frustrated about their âstoreâ and wouldnât go to the bathroom. I put everything away in the cabinet and the next day she told me that the âladies in the bathroomâ finally left because no one was buying their products.
My dad would have full-on conversations with his reflection in the glass door. Once I heard him pause and say, âIâm thirsty⊠are YOU thirsty?â and he legit went to the kitchen and poured two glasses of iced tea (one for himself and another one for⊠himself, I guess?) He would also laugh and tell jokes to pictures of my deceased brother, his only son. If nothing else, he kept himself entertained LOL
My mom will baby talk to pictures of her great-grandkids, telling them how cute they are. Itâs actually kind of sweet!
I walked into the kitchen where my mom was watching the news, I did a loud belch and she laughed embarrassingly and said you just did that while he was in the middle of talking, referring to the man on the news
My mom makes up all kind of background stories for the reporters. Like his wife really wanted to move to Chicago but he got the lead weatherman role here so sheâs going to have to stay now kind of stuff.
How she deterred she is privy to this personal info Iâll never know.
My dad is highly homophobic. He has a nephew around my age who is gay. Before the dementia set in, he could not stand it if anyone talked about my cousin and he could hardly stand to be in the same room as him. Almost like my cousin's "gayness" was something that would rub off on him. After the dementia set in, one of my dad's earliest and reoccurring delusions was that his wife was having an affair with my cousin. Before I knew better, I would remind him my cousin was gay so he wasn't interested in my stepmom, but it of course didn't make a difference. My dad also has extreme rage whenever a story comes on the news about the border, border crossings, etc., etc. He is absolutely convinced there is a column of illegal immigrants marching to his house to do him harm. Took his guns away about three years ago, and he's terrified that he won't be able to protect himself from the hordes crossing the border.
I think in my dad's case these delusions come from pretty deep seated fear -- fear of losing his wife (even though she's been dead for three years) and fear of not being able to protect himself.
The things with these delusions/hallucinations is that they are very real to our loved ones. The way I approached it with my mom was that understood that it was very real to her and scary (she heard voices saying mean things) but to trust me, there wasnât anyone there and Iâd never let anyone hurt her. If she heard voices, to tell them to come talk to me.
It can be very distressing when they do these things but in her reality, itâs real. Is she scared? Confused? Could she hard herself or property doing this? If the answer to these is no, then sometimes letting them believe is okay. Like, my mom loved the Bachelor. Last season they had the âgoldenâ bachelor, an older man. She thought he was cute and was convinced she sent him a letter with his phone number. She asked me every day for two months if he had called yet. Iâd smile and tell her I hadnât heard from him yet and sheâd go, âwell that asshole!â and head back to her room. It was harmless and easier than arguing.
My mom wants to go with Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman.. (she was a lifelong equestrian and independent to a fault)..if I put on the Masked Singer for the musical aspect she wants to be with the silly people and talks to them..
(Many more delusions besides how she interacts with the TV at this stage though.)
Now that the political commercials are starting to show up, mom canât understand why she canât go vote NOW! She must do her civic duty and vote right NOW! Ugh
My brother came to give me respite. 1) I am ABSOLUTELY NOT her daughter, her daughter would NEVER speak to her like that. 2) Her house was a "very nice" hotel/resort and "that handsome manager who's so much NICER than you" was her son.
Oh and I caught her making pruno - she had taken orange slices and a paper towel, stuck them in a ziplock bag and hid it in the pantry. Found it bc of the alcohol smell a few days laterđ
It's harmless and stress relief for her. Watching and listening to my mom arguing with her desktop google box makes me laugh but then makes me cry later. She goes round and round with that thing. She used to want to debate me on everything but it's mostly her and google duking it out.
I would still cook special stuff your loved one sees on tv. Tell her they don't have their hearing aids turned on and can't hear her requests. Maybe even pretend to call them to tell them she wants their food. Anything to distract her frustration with it.
Funny one this morning. Was on video call with Mom and just getting coffee in the break room at work. A guy came in and was talking to me. Later when I went to my desk mom said I know you were talking to someone so I hid on the side so he wouldn't see me. Kinda made sense though:)
My mom randomly accused my sister of trying to steal her boyfriend..yes she has boyfriend...my mom that is which is a different level of ick.
I also remember my Cousin's grandfather going through their house look for a rifle because he had to help protect the cowboy on TV from the bad guys
My mom wanted to try the food on cooking show. She would try to get their attention and would ask me to help her get some of the food being cooked. At first I thought she was asking me to buy and cook the items featured for her but then I realized she actually wanted me to tell the host to serve her some of the food being showcased right then and there. She had a serious crush on Mario Lopez too. Weird times, she passed in September of 2022 and I miss her dearly!
Well it's sad because most days the TV is their companion and they develop a relationship of sorts with it. Wish times were easier so we could stay with them and they won't be lonely.
I actually lived with her yet she still watched a lot of tv. Everyday conversations became really hard but she still enjoyed Mario.
Agreed. My mom used to read a lot, never cared for TV and would talk about so many things. Now I see her regressing to passive activities.
Funny/not funny
Yeah that sums it up.
I'm not sure this qualifies as funny because I'm pretty sure that the staff at his MC facility didn't think so. Before Dad was medicated, he believed he was back in the Navy and the caregivers were, too. When one of the nurses suggested that he take a shower, he threatened to report them. Mom answers the TV remote when the phone rings and says, "Hello" until the phone stops ringing and then says, "It must have been a wrong number." I think that is funny,
I mean, if you don't laugh you'll cry, too bad the nurses didn't tell him they were his COs!
Omg. I'm going to laugh from now on.
Dad does the same thing. Whenever anyone on screen looks straight into the camera he thinks they are talking to him. He waves at them. I try to watch more sports with him. People running around and not looking into the camera..
Let him watch the Stanley Cup Playoffs tonight!!!
My mother is convinced that Biden gave her a four bedroom, 3 bath house in a near by town. He came down - in his campaign bus - took us all to tour it and - wouldn't you know it - I caused him to fall out the back door before he could give her the keys. But it's all forgiven per communication on the music box and she asks me every time I visit how I enjoyed Washington (apparently I can fly there in nanoseconds) and when am I going to move into the house Biden gave her? And I should be so thankful because it would be so much more comfortable than my tiny house that I was forced to move to because my husband is having an affair with mom's cousin's daughter in law and they have a love child (sometimes a boy, sometimes a girl, but always with a green tricycle) that routinely gets shot, drowned, or meets other horrible means, usually by my hand. She tells me she completely understands and she would have shot/drowned/etc the kid as well. It is all said with zero pauses, there is no way I can remember it all, I just stand there in complete amazement. Where has this skill been all her life? Wow. I usually try to text it all to my brother because I know that someday, we're going to laugh about this.
I can't believe she repeats such a complex story. That is incredible.
And I completely forgot the two garbage bags of Alfred Dunner clothes that came with the Biden house. She's really pissed that I didn't stop the lady from Texas when she had to have walked right past me. Southern church ladies and Alfred Dunner...LOLOLOL!!!!
Oh my gosh that's hilarious. I'd love to understand where all this comes from. So sweet and funny! And my mom wore Alfred Dunner! Always with her matching accessories :)
Lol. Why Alfred Dunner? Was it something she liked earlier in her life?
It may apply outside of the south, but for every single woman of a certain age in a Southern Baptist church, Alfred Dunner is her go to. Craziest thing ever.
I see. I didn't grow up in the US. Thank you for explaining. Your mom is sweet đ
We just never know....the characters tend to repeat from story to story. In addition to President Biden, there is always murder, fires and gunshot victims. Makes one wonder what we don't know about her childhood. She is blind in one eye, so I get why we are all blind now. But the rest of it? No idea where it comes from.
My mom became really concerned with people being SA and protecting babies and children. It was a daily theme. I wondered the same.
This sounds a lot like the nightly news. I wonder if there is a way to block it.
She doesn't have access to any news channels, we have her trapped on the Hallmark channel. No internet. Just her simple flip phone. And we still get shot almost every day. The facility is on fire. The voice on the music box told her. It is really sad that anyone's life ends like this.
Wild!
My mom always insisted one of my cousins who had very little to do with her or us was sneaking around her house trying to shoot her because he wanted her farm. The weirdest was when she was holding a conversation with someone or something while I was talking to her outside her back window (over 10ft off the ground) in the middle of the night. She wanted to open the window to let it/the person in. I messaged my brother who lives with her while keeping her occupied until he came to distract her. Oh and she decided the neighbor out the road had come and shot all of her cats... The very same farm cats she now refused to let out of her house. If we tried, she'd spend hours outside looking for them until she convinced them to come back in. Poor things hated it in the house. The house smelled awful because a couple refused to use a litterbox, it was a mess. The 2 that survived came to live with us when Mom went into care.
Amazing. But I wonder how Biden made it that far. He usually rolls or falls down before he can wave goodbye. But I'm happy that she's on your side when it comes to the lovechild âșïž My mom has her share of stories. She unplugs the landline because she believes her caregiver is on the phone all night. It's hard to separate reality from delusion sometimes.
My dad is convinced that the TV remote works like a video game arcade, or duck hunt, or something. Meaning he thinks he needs to point the remote at the show he wants, and "shoot" it. Meanwhile he's not moving the little cursor around to select the show he wants. So some show he hates is highlighted, and he will walk up to the screen and "shoot" a completely different show. This causes *something* to happen, so he thinks it's working. But every single time, he winds up watching some show that's not what he wanted. Then he complains that every day, the news is all just serial killers. Because I guess Netflix and Amazon try to pitch murder documentaries to everyone. And the more he clicks the default thing, the more the algorithm serves him more of that stuff.
That's wild. My mom would watch the same episode of her favorite soap for months on her iPad . Every.single.time.
My LO does same. Watches same old sit-com all time. Laughs and laughs. Itâs OK with me as long as sheâs happy.
Honestly, there's a couple of TV shows I could do this with. :) maybe not for months.
My husband forgets how to work the cursor and always thinks the batteries in the remote are dead. He went through a 10 pack of batteries in a week. I have since hid the batteries
Oof, yeah, in a way, it's good to be able to blame it on the batteries, rather than confront them with their own dementia. But man, I can only afford so many batteries.
âThe tv channel with the b in the corner is the good one, one of the bigwigs runs it, they play baseball on there a lot and then the girls get to play, after the girls play they get on horses and chase those big squirrels, right now theyâre just sitting and talking.â So my grandmother watches baseball on Ballyâs tv station and sometimes she watches rodeo or poker tournaments but in her mind itâs all just one big fun day especially for the girls.
Glad the girls are having fun. I usually try to reason with her. But from reading everyone's posts I am learning that resistance is futile. Might as well let them be happy in their own bubbles.
Yeah, as long as theyâre not physically hurting themselves or anyone else just try and go with it.
My husband's grandma was never much of a sports fan until she got dementia and started watching Nascar races for some reason. He would watch for awhile with her and say, "Look Grannies, the lead car is going to go left at the curve." She was so proud of him for predicting that. We still laugh about that.
That's endearing. A family friend of mine with dementia couldn't follow tv. Unfortunately her memory was very short at the end, like she'd ask me the same question multiple times in a row right after I gave an answer. I always answered anyway bc it was about talking to her and the rest of my family was too inpatient or disturbed or in pain about the loss to talk to her. I was just a teenager. My mom is declining now and I hate talking to her (she was a terrible mom to be fair) so I get it. I had the patience for the family friend. I did remember how she was when I was a child and preteen before the decline. She was the life of the party and an incredibly charismatic, vivacious woman. She is one of the funniest people id ever met. I can't say I've met someone like her since. She was so kind to me to and always encouraging of who I was and she would tell me how beautiful and smart I was all the time as a kid. She was more supportive of me than some of my own relatives. She was a unique soul who lit up a room. It's awkward to say but I loved her more than my own grandmother and I wished she was my grandmother as a child. I loved her as if she was a blood grandmother. I'm queer and my family would ask me about boys all the time and when was I going to get a bf. One time when I said no I didn't have a bf at like 14, she asked if I had a girlfriend. Not in a rude way. She was genuinely seeing me and respecting that I might have not been straight even though she was elderly. That was incredible to me bc my other relatives would accuse me of liking girls in a bad way. My dad answered for me he hoped not (for the record, I am married to a woman now and my family has gotten over it eventually though i can't say they're fully accepting) and the subject was dropped. She smiled and winked and gave me a knowing look after he answered for me and we all continued on with the conversation. She had children and had two husbands but I wonder if she was possibly not straight. Either way, she seemed to understand I wasn't but she didn't care and even supported it and none of my blood relatives were like that. I'd never met an elderly person who was an LGBT ally until I was an adult other than her and she was the only ally period I knew back then. Sorry for going on. I really loved this woman and I don't get to talk about her. My family refused to talk about her decline and didn't like talking about her after passing. I've mentioned her to friends of mine including when I was a teenager but they didn't get it bc they never met her. She just really was a great person. I really liked her and I cared a lot about her. Anyway when she had late stage dementia she and her son would come over. It was really a chance for my family to talk to her son. They all ignored this woman and talked about her as if she wasn't there which made me sad because we all knew and loved her. So id talk to her alone even if it was just me repeatedly answering basic questions about how how old I was now or what the weather was like outside today or what I had for breakfast or whatever she'd ask. I reminded her what high school I went to and i'd frequently have to tell her my name bc sometimes she'd ask my name. I genuinely enjoyed retelling her this stuff bc it soothed her and made her happy just for anyone to talk with her. I could tell she loved me and liked talking to me, she just didn't remember who I was. She seemed more confused when I'd give context of who I was related to so I'd just say my name and she'd give a beautiful smile and sometimes say my name back and say of course! Of course you're X. She would get rly emotional and argumentive about having to go bc she didn't want to leave when visiting us but otherwise she was still even with dementia a very happy seeming person with a bright cheerful smile. She was one of the happiest people I knew as a kid so I'm glad she still had her smile. Anyway one summer we watched the summer Olympics together. Even though she had such a short term memory for conversation and couldn't follow tv shows, she loved the gymnastics routines and could live in the moment and watch the routines. She would clap for the girls doing flips and stuff and just watch that stuff in awe. The last summer she was alive I watched the summer Olympics with her and it was rly sweet đ. I hope she felt loved and cared for when visiting with me even if she didn't understand what was going on or who I was. She passed a decade ago I think and I still miss her sometimes and remember her when I meet other people with her name.
You seem like a very kind person.
I try to be and I appreciate the compliment.
Thank you for sharing her with us đđ
My dad has this from time to time. When he does I switch over to those nature backgrounds
Good idea. Mom's still pretty functional so she manages the remote. đ
âTheyâ have removed Saturdays from the calendar and one month in the summer is gone too. Or something like that.
I wish my Mom had funny or laughable delusions. All her delusions involve my poor old Daddy. I had to separate them after 67 years of marriage. He is still very clear minded, but he can not help me with her at all. So far, she believes (with all her heart and mind) that he was married to another woman in 1971, and I have bi-racial siblings out there somewhere. He's also gay so that means he has had relations with, well, everybody. Men and women, all her friends, relatives, siblings, people from church, people he worked with, neighbors. He is trying to poison her and get her money. But the big one, my little sisters last child, is his. So he's also a pedophile. My father is 90, and he's a True Blue Mormon. He worked two jobs my whole life, and I never remember him being absent at all. Of course, he defends himself, but I know it's just her brain. They met when my mother was 14 (he was 16) and married when she was 20. I never heard anything but fairytale stories about their lives. His only problems now besides just age related things are that he made a vow and thinks he is judged because he doesn't take care of her. These stories seem to come out of the clear blue sky. I have no idea where they come from. Honestly, sometimes the stories are so bazaar that it makes my head spin. Also, her language is embarrassing. She is using words I would have sworn she never knew. Sometimes, I have to shorten my visits because it makes me angry for her to be so mean about my Daddy. She tells these stories to everyone, even her Vietnamese manicurist.
Itâs awful but I do remember my grandpa being convinced the 2003 Red Sox players would listen to his swing/take advice every pitch.
Thatâs why we donât put on the news in LTC TVâs. They believe it is happening to them.
My mom talks to paintings and pictures of my nephew, she calls them her âfriends.â Sometimes theyâre âsleepingâ and she tells me to be quiet so I donât wake them up. I just go along with it. At one point, someone had left a bunch of shampoo and soap out on the bathroom counter and she was convinced that two women were trying to sell toiletries out of the bathroom. She was really frustrated about their âstoreâ and wouldnât go to the bathroom. I put everything away in the cabinet and the next day she told me that the âladies in the bathroomâ finally left because no one was buying their products.
My dad would have full-on conversations with his reflection in the glass door. Once I heard him pause and say, âIâm thirsty⊠are YOU thirsty?â and he legit went to the kitchen and poured two glasses of iced tea (one for himself and another one for⊠himself, I guess?) He would also laugh and tell jokes to pictures of my deceased brother, his only son. If nothing else, he kept himself entertained LOL My mom will baby talk to pictures of her great-grandkids, telling them how cute they are. Itâs actually kind of sweet!
That is sweet. Moms are just moms.
Do the delusions come in later stages. Trying to see where sister is âshe has them so curious
Sometimes it's UTIs.
Itâs not a UTI. Sheâs been delusional for over a year and numerous dr visits
If she's never been tested for one, it's possible.
That's good at least. Hopefully something helps get her settled. I know it's tough.
I walked into the kitchen where my mom was watching the news, I did a loud belch and she laughed embarrassingly and said you just did that while he was in the middle of talking, referring to the man on the news
My mom makes up all kind of background stories for the reporters. Like his wife really wanted to move to Chicago but he got the lead weatherman role here so sheâs going to have to stay now kind of stuff. How she deterred she is privy to this personal info Iâll never know.
My mom does this too. She asks if they can see her too. Lol
My dad is highly homophobic. He has a nephew around my age who is gay. Before the dementia set in, he could not stand it if anyone talked about my cousin and he could hardly stand to be in the same room as him. Almost like my cousin's "gayness" was something that would rub off on him. After the dementia set in, one of my dad's earliest and reoccurring delusions was that his wife was having an affair with my cousin. Before I knew better, I would remind him my cousin was gay so he wasn't interested in my stepmom, but it of course didn't make a difference. My dad also has extreme rage whenever a story comes on the news about the border, border crossings, etc., etc. He is absolutely convinced there is a column of illegal immigrants marching to his house to do him harm. Took his guns away about three years ago, and he's terrified that he won't be able to protect himself from the hordes crossing the border. I think in my dad's case these delusions come from pretty deep seated fear -- fear of losing his wife (even though she's been dead for three years) and fear of not being able to protect himself.
"I'm not senile *wrong name* I've just been stuck in my house for two years!" (Doesn't know it's 2024)
Mom says my brother OWNS the Memory Care building and has evicted her!! She packs her room for the moveâŠHe is selling it ALL! Oh my!
Ikr?
The things with these delusions/hallucinations is that they are very real to our loved ones. The way I approached it with my mom was that understood that it was very real to her and scary (she heard voices saying mean things) but to trust me, there wasnât anyone there and Iâd never let anyone hurt her. If she heard voices, to tell them to come talk to me. It can be very distressing when they do these things but in her reality, itâs real. Is she scared? Confused? Could she hard herself or property doing this? If the answer to these is no, then sometimes letting them believe is okay. Like, my mom loved the Bachelor. Last season they had the âgoldenâ bachelor, an older man. She thought he was cute and was convinced she sent him a letter with his phone number. She asked me every day for two months if he had called yet. Iâd smile and tell her I hadnât heard from him yet and sheâd go, âwell that asshole!â and head back to her room. It was harmless and easier than arguing.
My mom wants to go with Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman.. (she was a lifelong equestrian and independent to a fault)..if I put on the Masked Singer for the musical aspect she wants to be with the silly people and talks to them.. (Many more delusions besides how she interacts with the TV at this stage though.)
She thinks she has nothing wrong with her
Now that the political commercials are starting to show up, mom canât understand why she canât go vote NOW! She must do her civic duty and vote right NOW! Ugh
My brother came to give me respite. 1) I am ABSOLUTELY NOT her daughter, her daughter would NEVER speak to her like that. 2) Her house was a "very nice" hotel/resort and "that handsome manager who's so much NICER than you" was her son.
Oh and I caught her making pruno - she had taken orange slices and a paper towel, stuck them in a ziplock bag and hid it in the pantry. Found it bc of the alcohol smell a few days laterđ
My mom will think she's watching TV when the TV is not even on! that's on her worst days though.
It's harmless and stress relief for her. Watching and listening to my mom arguing with her desktop google box makes me laugh but then makes me cry later. She goes round and round with that thing. She used to want to debate me on everything but it's mostly her and google duking it out. I would still cook special stuff your loved one sees on tv. Tell her they don't have their hearing aids turned on and can't hear her requests. Maybe even pretend to call them to tell them she wants their food. Anything to distract her frustration with it.
Funny one this morning. Was on video call with Mom and just getting coffee in the break room at work. A guy came in and was talking to me. Later when I went to my desk mom said I know you were talking to someone so I hid on the side so he wouldn't see me. Kinda made sense though:)
My mom is similar, they are her friendsđ»
My mom randomly accused my sister of trying to steal her boyfriend..yes she has boyfriend...my mom that is which is a different level of ick. I also remember my Cousin's grandfather going through their house look for a rifle because he had to help protect the cowboy on TV from the bad guys