Ideas for Homebound entertainment

[ahhappy]

My mother is very weak and is only able to go out occasionally now--which she hates. She's feeling very trapped so I'd like to come up with a "bag of tricks" to help her keep occupied. She loves to read and does fine finding her own things that way. She's been watching a whole lot of TV these days. Probably the best thing I do is to bring her grandchildren over. She doesn't have to do much and has a great time with them.

Does anyone have any other thoughts? How about any great comedy videos you know of?

Thanks for any thoughts you might have.

Amy

[Guest]

My mother in law is bedbound and one of the things we do for "entertainment" is that i read her the newspaper every day. We usually pick a story to follow such as the local trial going on in the news, or the weather (we live on the East Coast and have been following Hurricane Isabel) and i read her what the newspaper has that day on a couple of things that we are following. Then when the news is on, she feels like she is "up to date" on the latest happenings if we have read the story in the paper. She sleeps a lot during the day and has have trouble sleeping the whole night so we try to keep her entertained during the day so that she can sleep longer at night (and we can too). It's hard to keep someone "active" all day if they are in bed and can't get up in the wheelchair and move around. It exhauts her too much and i can't lift her into the wheelchair from the bed by myself.

[JenniferB]

My mom has been nitting a lot over the past several years. During her current runs with chemo she has turned to cross-stitching. It's pretty easy and doesn't require a lot of strenght. Maybe also try some puzzles or even cards if you think she's up to it. Hope this helps.

[Cindy RN]

We have such smart people on this board!! They have come up with great ideas.

One thing my mom and I did when she got to the point we could not leave the house was go thru old-I mean really old pictures. She had a couple of boxes of old black and white pics she had gotten from her mom's and her grandmas before they had died. We sorted them and she could recall when some were taken and where it was. Also the names of most of these people. I wrote it on the back. We then made up some family albums which she loved looking thru. Later after she died I took these albums to the funeral home and the extended family just loved them. They have made a priceless memento for all us.

I now am working on MY own old photos.

[norme]

My mom and I did the photo thing to but I didn't put the names of some of her aunts, uncles, cousins on them so now when I look i wonder who they are....dumb me..

I also had my mom tell me stories of her childhood and teen years. How she and dad meet, etc. I use to love to listen to them....also when my bother, sister and I were little.