AIBU to think care homes need more age-appropriate entertainment?

Do residents have to partake of this entertainment? I'd want to stay in my room with my television or an audiobook rather than be forced to sit through patronising entertainment, surrounded by people I barely know and unable to escape.

It's a frightening thought for me. The lack of freedom and choice for many elderly, they have to go where they are put, like children - but we take notice of what children like and dislike.

I have an older relative - 91 this month - who has been in a care home in Kent for about eighteen months and I am wondering if she is subject to this sort of thing.

Yeah, so were mine in the 80s.

@FannyNesbet her sweets would have been rationed

Of course it’s not at the same scale but it would be like constantly hosting events related to covid for my generation. Who the hell wants to be constantly reminded of that in their old age?!

Well, her parents would have. She wasn't shopping or making the list or working or budgeting. She was in existence, I guess, but no active role.

100% current older people should be grooving to Hendrix and I want Green Day and Offspring when it’s my turn

That would be a brilliant idea for a comedy sketch.

My mum was an adult during the war and she loathed Vera Lynn.
My dsis is part of a Seniors group in Australia, woebetide anyone trying to make any suggestions about age appropriate entertainment there. Most are in their 70s and 80s, so its all 60s and 70s for them.

This really annoys me. If I ever end up in a Care Home (technically I could within the next 15-20 years), I want them blasting out Bon Jovi or U2, not stuff my Granny (born 1900) was listening to.

@FannyNesbet to be fair she would still have had rationing

I agree with you and I would be so sad if I was stuck somewhere listening to annoying things from an era that didn't concern me.

That said, my MIL was born in 1948 and acts as though she personally ran from bombs, rationed and worked on the front lines. Pink Floyd has a lot to answer for, IMO!

So, I don't know if it's really anything to do with thinking residents like hearing this music as a result of them being around at the time, as much as it's just ingrained in the culture e.g. the UK never left WW2 and we must remember it and relive it in perpetuity.

Tbf most people probably cant remember it my Dad is 84 he was born in ireland so they were not in the war anyway but he was three when it ended my mum died last year but she would have also been three when it ended and only had vague mrmories of it .

Exactly. There were far fewer immediate effects to the whole population here in the US than there were in the UK, but many of us Baby Boomers learned something of how horrible so many aspects of it were. My father was in the Army in the Pacific theater, and I remember my grandmother telling me that she would go for long periods without hearing from him and agonizing over whether he was dead or alive. Thankfully he came back, but everyone knew families who were not so lucky. My father never talked about his wartime experiences, ever, and neither did my stepfather who served in the European theater. There was certainly no talk of nostalgia.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are in their early 80s! I doubt they would want to listen to Roll out the Barrel and We'll Meet Again.

What gets me about this is that the younger generation (I.e those running the homes) seem to have this romanticised view of WW2 and expect all old people to want to reminisce about it constantly. According to my grandma it was a fucking awful time, not just the bombs dropping but families being ripped apart, kids having awful times with their evacuation hosts … some kids having an even worse time when they went back home to a forever changed family. Why the hell would they want reminding of it constantly

It is, and I'm considering whether I could get a gig on the retirement homes circuit as a Marie Lloyd tribute act. But it was nostalgia fodder in the 1970s.

It’s a well known song.

'Don't dilly dally' would have been one for the centenarians even 20 years ago.

I worked on day hospital for Dementia patients for about a year about 20 years i could recite all the words to most of those songs
A patiicular " favourite " of mine
Was " My old man said follow the van"😂

I could make a punk song out of Roll Out the Barrel.

”Let’s have a barrel of no fun!”

My father was born in the 1920’s and lived into his 90s. He couldn’t stand Vera Lynn or “Roll out the barrel” type songs. By the sound of it he was lucky never to need a care home.

The prospect probably prompted his DNR.

The hippies who paraded around Woodstock naked are now in their 80s.

Saturday Night Fever was fifty years ago.

The punks who pogoed to the Sex Pistols are in their 70s. Johnny Rotten's late wife had dementia. Imagine assuming her type of music (or that of anyone her age) was Roll Out the Barrel. 🙄

My dad's care home had regular animal encounter days. They had pet therapy people bringing in dogs, rabbits and guinea pigs, lambs, piglets, parrots and Shetland ponies.

My late wife ran a residential sheltered housing scheme and part of her job was organising events such as the Christmas party.

The first Christmas party the entertainment was a piano player and a sing along to "Roll out the barrel", We'll meet again", "Run rabbit run" and all the old wartime songs.

The last one she was there for, they had a Tina Turner "tribute" act and then a live band playing everything from the Beatles to Oasis.

Sounds much better than most. I'd also want a "puppy day" where you'd get to cuddle and pet lots of puppies (especially GSD or Doberman) 🥰