Ditzy or age related memory problem?

[kidneybeans4u]

My MIL lives with us and we want to help, but I dont know if it is age related or simply ditzy (i.e. she would have been the same back when she was 20).

She is perfectly capable of walking everywhere, remembering routes to new places, taking the bus, using smart TV, using smart phone apps, etc. However...

1. She forgets to close ground floor windows after leaving it open to air clothes. We discuss, she realises, then it inevitably happen again a few weeks later. It is such a security risk.

1. Similarly she would go to bed without locking doors that she had left open. I check every night but sometimes it is a side door that I dont even use so it gives me so much anxiety that I might miss something every night.

1. She waters the plants, then starts doing something else and forgets to switch off the tap.

1. We tell her not to pull too hard on the watering hose. She does it and it breaks. Twice.

1. She uses the same chopping board for raw meat and veg. Even though we have discussed many times.

1. She puts raw meat on the top shelf in the fridge next to edibles.

We have repeated conversations and reminders but each time she feels sorry, feels bad, and says her memory is so bad.

Is this age related? or ditzy?

I think it sounds like normal ageing.

Sounds like me. I’ve been assessed as emphatically showing no signs of dementia.

can you fix security chains on the windows so they can’t open too far, put a self closer and a Yale type lock on the side door, engrave “no meat” or “only meat” on both sides of the chopping boards. Lock the hose away. I’m finding it helpful to use the timer on my fitbit type watch whenever I do something that I’m going to leave. Our back door has a key pad, so even it gets left unlocked it’s not a total security risk. If you set a burglar alarm each nigh it would tell you if any alarmed widows were open.