Posted on 03/24/2017 12:44:02 PM PDT by Morgana
We might think names like 'sweetie' or 'dear' are terms of endearment.
But what seems like a kind gesture may actually be taken as patronizing, a new study finds.
Scientists say elderly sufferers of dementia are often exposed to 'elderspeak' - a loud and slow form of baby talk for seniors.
This makes them feel like they are incompetent and can lead to a downward spiral of social isolation and cognitive decline.
Researchers studied nuns at a Midwestern convent and fount a very different approach - one that brightened the spirits of their suffering sisters.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Good for you! I couldn’t agree more with this.
LOL!
And in AussieLand you’re greeted with G’Day Luv - man or woman duzzin matta.
I think religious teaching orders existed long before America did.
I know. This doesn't fit older people I know.
This is the sort of thing people have to play by ear. Some caregivers do sound condescending. Others sound ... well ... caring. I don't think you can lay down hard and fast rules. What one nurse or orderly can say may sound phony in the mouth of another.
A few older people have all the resentment of the young generation when they aren't spoken to in a cool, cursory, factual manner. But most like it when there's some emotion and warmth in the voices of those who talk to them. They don't like it when there's too much of a hard edge in the voice and manner of people who bring them their food or change their sheets. When you've already got plenty of things to worry about just knowing that people aren't too judgemental can be a relief.
Convent of nuns, or not...I ain’t your ‘sweetie’, your ‘honey’, ‘dear’, ‘punkin’ or ‘darlin’.
Please feel free to refer to me by my name, first name or surname, either one.
The only person authorized to call me any of those sappy names sleeps next to me.
Just sayin’
“...I went to a school with many nuns as teachers....”
So did I (shudder...)
Sister Helen Most Homicidal... other wise know as “Hercules”.
She was big. And I mean BIG...
She was meaner than a polecat...
And she had a mustache that Stalin would have been proud of...
And she absolutely HATED me... now to be fair, it MAY have had something to do with the time I put eraser chalk on my hands, and patted down her chair with it... and when she stood up there appeared to be white hand prints on her voluminous rear end.
Yeah... it COULD have been me... but I think she just didn’t like kids in general...
What did they just say?
Cannot stand it and will not put up with it. Back when I was a student at Marquette U, I asked a professor a question. He started out with condescension: “My dear girl…” I shouted at him, “I am NOT your dear girl.”
Been doing that all my life. I am NOT sweetie. I am NOT dear, I am NOT any of that……. So there!
Well stated. Dementia patients don’t care at all. Yes, I have experience with this.
Don’t ever come to the South regardless of age if you can’t handle being called sweetie or honey or ma’am
Q: How are we doing today?
A: Do you have a tapeworm?
The other day a pretty, twenty-something waitress called me “Sweetheart”.
I felt old.
If you run a 5K three times a week, where are they? Maybe work on your writing skills?
That pisses me off. I respond "No idea. What's going on in YOUR life?"
I’m 62, so I guess that entitles me to call you snookums.
But I won’t. Chuckle.
Penny: Sweetie, every night you don’t kill him in his sleep, he wins.
Maybe they think everyone is Sheldon?
Or calling an obviously older person “young lady” or “young man”. I HATE that!
You can if you’re 62 and cute!
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