Have you heard the Malaysia-Thai border checkpoint at Padang Besar has been open on May 5th yet? What does it possibly mean? Traveling season is coming!!!!
Summer is around the corner and several countries are now starting to open their borders with less restriction as we all start getting used to living with the Covid pandemic. If you consider this is the time to go on a family travel, here are some tips you take into consideration taking your parents out of town:
1. Always plan everything in advance and in detail
It would never be a waste of time to sit down and plan your trip with your parents and grandparents before taking them away from their cozy and safe house. Just take a few minutes to understand what your elders need, and plan the trip not just based on your own ideas but according to their preferences, which could help make sure everyone enjoy the trip as much as possible.
2. Short trip is more recommendable
When taking your elders out of home, considering their ages and health condition are important. As it is recommended to plan your trip in shorts – with several stops and breaks during the trip, you should make sure your parents/grandparents would not feel too tired or even too intense for them to catch up with everybody’s steps.
3. Arrange small and private trips
Traveling for young people is to make use of every minute, going here and there, getting on different transportation, and exploring as much as you could. However, the elders, they could get overwhelmed by meeting too many people. Instead, make sure to save them as much time and effort for transit and if possible, you can hire a car to drive them around. Besides, children should spend time communicating and interacting with your elders because eventually family trip is also about creating bond between members.
4.Do health check-ups and prepare some medicines
It is necessary to do a simple health examination of your elders to make sure they could be ready to hit the road. Moreover, bringing some over-the-counter medicines such as diarrhea medicine, motion sickness medicine, pain, and fever medicine (acetaminophen, aspirin, or ibuprofen) could be necessary for not just your elders but for you as well.
5. Find a stopover for the break in between
Everybody needs a break for toilet time during each trip. Especially, some elders might have the need to use the accessible toilet for diaper changes every 2 to 3 hours frequently. Therefore, you need to make sure to always help your elders find a restroom at every stopover so that they could have some time to relax their bodies and mind.
6. Remember to bring a foldable mobility assistance device
For elders, delays in mobility function are the biggest obstacles for them to going out and away from home for several days. Therefore, you need to prepare either walkers or wheelchairs and choose the foldable one as it could help minimize the space and easily bring on any vehicles.
