As children grow up and move away from home, the natural bonding that takes place in a family that lives together can be weakened and disrupted. It takes effort to remain close to aging relatives, but the rewards of maintaining a close family unit are well worth it. Adult children and their families who are at a loss as to how to stay connected to senior members of their family can take inspiration from the following five tips on how to bond with aging relatives:

Keep in Touch

It’s often easy for days or even weeks to go by without taking the time to make a phone call to an elderly parent or relative just to check in because our own schedule is so full. Rather than consider keeping in touch an obligation, look forward to spending a few minutes on a regular basis to share good news about what’s happening in your family and how children and grandchildren are doing.

 Share Meals

Studies show that many aging relatives suffer from depression because they experience less and less opportunities to socialize with others. If senior family members are still mobile, extend invitations to enjoy dining out at a local restaurant, or make plans to share meals with them in their own home by preparing an easy menu that you can cook together.

Celebrate Holidays

Few things can help a family feel bonded to aging relatives as well as celebrating holiday traditions together which remind both young and old about good memories from the past in addition to creating new memories about times shared for the future. You don’t have to wait until the Christmas season–the calendar presents several opportunities for sharing festivities with your senior relatives. Hold a St. Patrick’s Day party, a Fourth of July picnic, or a Halloween costume party to bring the family together for a celebration.

Offer At-Home Help

You can do a great deal of good for your aging loved one by looking into home care services to make sure their needs are met. With your efforts and the expertise of an at-home care provider working in synergy home care can be individualized to best serve your relative and make everyday life easier for them.

Oral History Projects

An exciting way to bond with aging relatives is to do an oral history project together in which you record memories of certain turning points in your family’s history, with either audio or video recording equipment. A similarly fulfilling and fun project would be creating a family scrapbook with your aging relative that organizes years of the family’s photographs into one or several volumes as a cherished heirloom.