Boomers once gave their kids the sex talk. Now it’s time for them to speak frankly about dying.
Baby boomers who have children may remember with fondness or embarrassment having the “sex talk” with their offspring. They were more embarrassed than you were, but you got through it and life moved on.
Speaking of life, the roles may be reversed now. Well, not the roles actually. More like the final assignments. It might be time for boomers to let their children know exactly what they have in mind for the final disposition. That is, what do you want your kids to with you when you’re gone. So that would be the “death talk” as opposed to the “sex talk.”
It’s time to recognize the next boom for the baby boomers, and that would be the illness, dependency and death boom, and that is NOT in the distant future. It’s a good time to communicate with the offspring/caretakers exactly how you want to go out of this world.
Just like the sex talk, it should be the time for candor as opposed to squirming. Sit the kids/caretakers down, take a big breath and tell them straight up what to do if/when you slide into dementia and how you want to be buried, cremated or rebooted. Do you have a plot for the time when you’ve lost the plot? If you’re going the ecologically sound cremation route, where do you want the ashes flung?
Do you know what a DNR is? It stands for Do Not Resuscitate and if you are near death’s door in a hospital, your near and dears ought to know that is the acronym you prefer. Gen Xers and Millennials have enough aggro in their lives right now, so it would be so kind of boomers to spell out exactly what we want in sickness and in death.
Thinking about the unthinkable kind of sucks. Leaving your offspring or designated caretakers in the dark about what to do when you go dark sucks even more. It’s time to get over it and do what baby boomers have always done – marched to a different drum. Let everyone know that when the “beat doesn’t go on,” here’s the plan. As soldiers going into battle were told, “goodbye and good luck.”
Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon. But that’s not all. You can also purchase the Best of BoomSpeak on Amazon.
