Bathing Solutions!
When it comes to having foresight and looking after yourself in the future my Mum is on it like cheese on toast and always has been… There’s a few things she’s thinking about changing in her house right now so that it’s all a bit more manageable for later on and that’s JUST like my Mum I have to say… Whether its low maintenance-ifying her garden, getting the right insurance for every eventuality or even just changing up her bathroom with some clever bathing solutions, she is ahead of her game – she always has been and it serves her beautifully…
My Mum bought our family home for just the two of us when she was younger than I am now. Considerably so in fact! But at 35 she had the foresight to purchase a property which would easily see her into her old age. She was single and looking after herself which I think she’s incredibly proud of – I know I am on her behalf! She chose a bungalow for a variety of reasons and lots of them were considered knowing she would likely be elderly and living on her own one day. I mean it wasn’t all forward planning, it’s an amazing space which came with a bigger plot of land (her love of gardening was an important factor) but at the back of her mind she was able to feel confident that this purchase would be one which would suit her well as an elderly lady!
Now I’d not say she was elderly yet! Not by a long chalk! At 70 my mum is super active and she still helps me way more that I help her but she does have a rather arthritic knee and I know the lack of stairs in her bungalow suit her because when she comes to us she finds them a bit of a challenge at times. Her own bathroom is HUGE! That was also a factor for her when buying our family home. Back then it was a really revolting navy blue (who chooses a navy blue bathroom suite?) with a brown carpet (yep brown and yep carpet) with two steps up to the bath. It was… AWFUL! My Mum couldn’t afford to change it for a really long time as a single mum and we lived with that dark horrible set up for twenty years. In the mid noughties she finally changed it to what she wanted! White. Stone flooring. Massive shower. A bath big enough for two. Gorgeously large sink. Bidet (yes, my mum might be the only person outside of Spain and Italy with one but she wanted it so she got it) and it’s a really lovely room. There’s a lilac accent to it which makes everywhere feel fresh and clean but actually, it’s been a pretty long time since the ‘new bathroom’ was actually new and fifteen years later she’s beginning to think about making some more changes to it!
Her shower door is all a bit broken and the motor’s on its way out now too so though everything else is pristine and clean as a whistle (you’d not know it had been there for fifteen years unlike its predecessor which looked like it had been there for 30!) the shower has to go! And my Mum, as ever, has foresight to do things right when it comes to choosing a new shower. She wants a shower which will suit her if she ever has any real mobility problems in her old age. She might not be there yet but at 35 she wasn’t either and she still made the right choices for later on. This is what makes my Mum and I so different as I’m always fly by the seat of my pants while she is organised and doesn’t have any truck with chaos – but you know what, she’s deffo got the right idea! She’s looking at walk in showers which have easy access. Some have special features like half height doors to make assisted showering easier but the main point for her is that she doesn’t need this yet so she wants one which is still stylish and doesn’t look out of place in a contemporary bathroom. Bathing Solutions make walk in showers which fit this very bill and on top, because my Mum is ever the practical, they are made to be easy to clean and keep clean – now that’s something everyone wants regardless of age or ability!
I’m so proud of my Mum for being such an ace single parent to me and now as a grown up and Mummy myself I see far more of the things she thought about and did for us when I was a child. She’s always been bloody rock hard (the woman rods her own drains, changes plugs, fixes the roof, puts up sheds, paints walls… You name it and she’ll turn her hand) and I seriously doubt I will ever need to return the favour and look after her but I’m ready if I ever need to – the thing is she is always ahead of her game meaning she never takes any of her hard earned independence away from herself, just one of the many things I admire about my strong, capable, single mum! she thinks about things in advance and that’s why, I am sure, she stays so flipping young at heart and in the physical!
This post is a commissioned article with Bathing Solutions.
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