12 Things Your Adult Kids Should Do For You Before You Die

They can be frustrating, exasperating, even downright insulting.

But they're our “kids”, and we love them unconditionally. Still, there’s nothing that thrills us quite as much as when they show us how much they really care (and not just on our birthday)!

Print out this list and surreptitiously leave it at their house when you next visit. Or slip it into your daughter’s handbag or son’s coat pocket. Hopefully, they’ll get the hint!

1. Call us at least once to simply
ask “how are you?”

2. Pick up the dinner check for
no obvious reason

3. Agree to pose for a family portrait

4. Offer to host Thanksgiving dinner

5. Tell us we look marvelous

6. Allow us to “show” you off
once in a while

7. Surprise us with an all-expense paid trip to the destination of our dreams

8. Credit us publicly for something
we do really well

9. Create a scrapbook or write a letter sharing your reasons for loving us

10. Make the effort to somehow
include us in your kids’ lives

11. Just say "you’re right!"

12. Promise to make sure our essential wishes are met, as we age

What did we miss?

0 Responses to “12 Things Your Adult Kids Should Do For You Before You Die”

  1. Lisa Jasper says:

    Being a Mom to a 36 year old and 20 year old with special serious medical needs I guess my perspective is a bit different. All I want from my kids is to see them live and be happy.

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  2. Maureen says:

    My kids already do some of these and they are in their early 30’s. Just gotta work on that dream vacation!! 😉

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  3. Elaina says:

    As long as I have my faculties, can still balance MY checkbook, still loan you money, allow me, for as long as possible, to make my decisions even though you are there for me.

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    • aislingthecraic says:

      AMEN & AMEN!!!

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  4. TrendyT says:

    Go to Church with you at least once after leaving the nest.

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  5. karen says:

    My daughter has already done these things and she’s in her early 30’s.

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  6. Judy McPherson says:

    My daughter does most of them, my son is a completely different story.

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  7. McDonna says:

    It isn’t unusual to find that if we did these things for our children when they were little, or if we did them for our parents after we became adults, then it becomes part of the family culture – and the adult kids can’t WAIT to be *able* to do it for their parents!

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    • Linda Hartford says:

      So wish that was the case. Times have changed and kids don’t always honour the culture they were raised in. 🙁

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  8. Jeanne Traxler says:

    More than a few of these are geared to the child having a big income. Lots of times that’s not the case.

    How about “Date a person we tell you to.”

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    • Geri Brin says:

      Hi Jeanne,

      We totally that not every “child” has a big income. Besides a dream vacation, none of these suggestions were written for kids with big incomes. Picking up a dinner check can be at Denny’s as well as a fancy restaurant.

      Geri Brin

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    • Geri Brin says:

      BTW, Jeanne, love your dating suggestion!

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