Taking care of sick parents

Yet some people feel that you don’t need to praise  or pray  for such people for taking good care of their sick parents, since they are supposed to do so.“Of course they deserve praise, especially since there are some children that don’t take care of their parents when they are sick. They neglect them to […]

Yet some people feel that you don’t need to praise  or pray  for such people for taking good care of their sick parents, since they are supposed to do so.
“Of course they deserve praise, especially since there are some children that don’t take care of their parents when they are sick. They neglect them to the extent that some relatives or house helps do the work, they as biological children are supposed to do,” a friend of mine observed.
It is unfortunate that parents that gave birth and nurtured their children with love and kindness, including making sacrifices, one day lie sick and neglected, with the children not wanting to be close to them.
Some are so impatient with the parents that they speak harshly to them as if they have brought the ailments unto themselves.
And the most appalling is for daughters to neglect their sick mothers. This is where they would not go and clean her room, wash her clothes, make sure she is dressed well, eat well, take her medicine and so on. In other words they  let  them live  in filth.
But surprisingly some sons are as good as or better than daughters in taking care of their mothers.
In one such case, the mother couldn’t walk, so the sons would carry her on their backs, taking turns if the need arises. This is apart from many other things they did for her. And these are men with wives and children.
One of them made it a habit to have breakfast with her every day as they lived close by. He also made her bed sometimes.
This woman would definitely have a piece of mind in spite of her aliment because her children are taking care of her in sickness.
 “I am proud of them; they are doing all they can to take care of me. I pray that may Allah bless them,” the mother was fond of saying.
The common belief is that if a person has children and he becomes old and sick, the children would automatically take care of him, which is how it should be.
In fact that is one of the reasons why people cry or worry about if they don’t have children.
Recently an old woman who is childless fell sick. Her lamentation was, “That is why it is good to have children.”
But the irony of it shows that some may have as many as ten children, but still be neglected by them if the parents fall sick.
In such cases tongues would wag; people would be asking, “where are the children?”
However, some may take their parents to the hospital and buy medicine for them, but the care and compassion may not be there which is another problem altogether.
The way some people treat their sick parents, one would think they wish them dead so that they can be free and go on with their lives!
If we had the culture of taking sick and elderly parents to old people’s homes here, some would gladly ‘banish’ their parents there.
Some of these children regret their unbecoming habit only when the sick parent dies, when they cannot do anything like seeking for their parents’ forgiveness, among the reward they would have got from God for taking care of them.
Who knows, some may be shedding crocodile tears, but then life is a circle and one day they may be in the same condition of illness as their late parents.
Sick parents deserve love, care and attention and those that offer such should surely be praised for proving to be good children to the end.