As parents age, adult children often find themselves stepping into many roles that extend beyond just healthcare. One of the primary areas that require attention is managing their household. Aging parents, particularly those with early signs of dementia or cognitive decline, may struggle to keep track of payments, contractors and disputes and issues of all kinds.
So here’s some good news for you: KinKeeper can keep track of all of the facets of your “caregiving” journey. Following are a few ways to use the app that go beyond the basics of healthcare.
- Bills + Utilities: Create a topic in your parent(s) profile titled “utilities” and add notes for services like electricity, cable, water and gas with basic information like the company, account number, phone number or website and even a copy of a recent bill. Ensuring that these bills are paid on time is crucial to avoid service interruptions and having this information on hand for when issues arise can save a lot of time and back and forth with your family.
- Contractors: Maybe you need to call their plumber, the painter or the “lawn guy”...we're sure they all have names 😆, but do you know any of them? Create a topic called Contractors and either make a note, take a pic of a business card or use the practitioner info type (just use the basic non-health fields) to add their contact information.
- Service Issues + Disputes: As technology evolves, older adults may have difficulty navigating changes in service plans, understanding bills, or troubleshooting issues. Handling customer service calls on their behalf becomes a regular chore for many KinKeepers, so creating a note with information on who you (or they) talked to last, what you were told, and what needs to be done next can help you keep things straight and enable someone else to pick up where you left off. Need to share the load? Check out the to-do feature in KinKeeper to get help from siblings or others.
KinKeeper is the place for everything that doesn’t have a place, so take 5 minutes and get a list from your parents next time you talk. Future You will thank you!
And thanks to KinKeeper user Dee for this tip, who told us that this is one way she uses KinKeeper to take care of her out-of-state parents.
P.S. This isn’t limited to your parents - you can do all the same things for your own household as we're guessing you’re the KinKeeper for that as well!
