But hold on a sec whizkid, isn't that deception?

When you deliberately de-emphasise the medical reasons that actually brought them into the nursing home in the first place?

I have parents that are approaching the high end of their middle age, and every year I can see them getting older, and frailer, and I know that at some point they are going to need care, for that reason alone, I want them to be near me.

Life is short, and the only thing that really matters in the end is love, and believe or not the only real place you can get lasting love is family. To betray that love in the last instance by casting a member of your family away because it is hardship, well, that seems wrong.

I will provide in home care for them if it comes to it, I will live with them in my house with me and my wife and children. I want my them to know their grandparents and to know that the true expression of love is something that goes beyond daily concerns. I want every part of my family to feel loved and cherished, and although I know that LTC places do their best, they can never replace the loving, playful, and ever changing atmosphere of a growing family.

Cultural values change, and our society is becoming more and more individualist with the consequence that many people spend most of their lives being lonely. Think of like this, from a purely selfish point of view, your children pattern on you, like it or not. If you put your parents into a home at the end of their lives, then chances are you too will end up there at the end of yours.

As a concession, I must admit that there will be people who feel they cannot afford to look after those elderly members of their family while maintaining a decent quality of life. My response is one of regret. I understand, society doesn't always give each of us the ideal situation in which to maintain family life, but remember this: for at least the first 16 years of your life you were all but useless to the parents that reared you, and that now they need you, shouldn't you return their kindness?