home activities in the midst of Covid - New member

Follymama

My MIL has recently moved in with our family permanently. Both my husband and I are still working everyday with him trying to work from home as much as possible so that someone is with her. She's still independent enough to dress herself, shower, eat, etc. We prepare all of her meals because if left up to her, she would eat candy, whip cream, etc. or wouldn't eat or drink at all. Her short term memory is pretty much non-existent as well as her processing skills. She can no longer drive, and due to Covid, can no longer go to her senior center to exercise and has only seen one of her friends a few times in the last year because of the pandemic. She very rarely goes outside because, "it's too cold out there" for her. She seems to like to fold laundry but we could really use other activities for her to do that won't frustrate her. I've tried simple crossword puzzles, regular puzzles, word searches, adult coloring books, etc and she is not interested - AT ALL. She doesn't like to cook or bake. She cries occasionally because she "feels useless." She paces around the house looking for something to do to help out around the house, but we are at a loss of ideas. Does anybody have any suggestions? We need ideas that aren't too "kiddie" but that she can do and feel some success.

Quilting brings calm

Since she likes to exercise - See if you can find some chair or other gentle exercise videos that can be played on the tv or a laptop.  Maybe even gentle yoga- there are chair versions. 

It’s springtime.  Maybe some vegetables or flower seedlings that can be raised from scratch and then planted in a raised bed that she can weed?  

Did she do crafts before?  Maybe some craft projects that can be done by hand?  My mom unfortunately had to give up crocheting because she can’t follow the instructions.   Craft stores might have beginner paint, glue, etc type things. 

If she can  do hand sewing, some local  quilter might be thrilled to have someone hand stitch the back binding of quilts.  Those can take a couple hours a day for a week or more.  

Rescue mom

You mentioned folding, which is a common favorite activity. Many keep old towels, sheets etc. around just so their LO can fold. Wash even if not dirty, they “help” with folding. YOU know you don’t need or use them, but usually they do not get that.

We had gazillion jars of loose change (coins), my DH with Alzheimer’s liked to sort the coins. Also liked “cleaning drawers” which for us meant sorting pencils from pens. 

But, if you said “clean out this drawer,” he could not process that. If you said “get all the paper clips out of the drawer,” or “get the pens out of the drawer,”  that worked. Then I’d say “get the nails out of the drawer,” and so on. (We have too many junk drawers!)  Or I’d say “help me clean off the coffee table”, which for him meant separate newspapers from magazines.

Even things he liked doing rarely lasted more than 15-20 minutes at most.. After that, he just lose focus.

Otherwise, I got nothing. My DH never liked crafts or puzzles, could not do word games. It was hard to find activities.