The New York Times-The Morning Newsletter
"Talk to your parents about their health."
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Russ Roberts (https://trendsingeopolitics.blogspot.com).
 February 8, 2026 |
Good morning. It can be hard to talk with aging parents about their health, but it’s important. Today, some advice to make those conversations easier.
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| Maria Hergueta |
The talk
 | By Simar Bajaj |
Americans are living longer. But many adult children don’t know what’s going on with their parents’ health — until after a fall, an ambulance ride or a hospital stay.
This lack of communication hurts everyone, said Dr. Louise Aronson, a geriatrician at the University of California, San Francisco. In an emergency, adult children may be overwhelmed about what to do and may clash with siblings. For parents, silence can mean that their wishes aren’t understood and that their children are needlessly put through the stress of guessing.
To avoid these scenarios, we asked experts what you need to learn about your aging parents before a crisis. And they identified three clear steps you can take to make sure you’re prepared.
1. Ask about their health.
The first step is having a difficult conversation with your parents.
In an emergency, a doctor may have only a snapshot of your parents’ health. So it’s important for you to get a clear picture. If you understand their routines and medical history, you can help the health care team treat your parents more effectively.
Start with the everyday stuff — what does a normal week look like — and then ease into questions about mobility and memory changes. Sometimes, it’s best to circle around the issue. Ask what they avoid now — taking the stairs, going on long walks, driving at night — and what’s gotten harder, like managing bills or keeping track of appointments, said Dr. Sabrina Taldone, the chief of general internal medicine at University of Miami Health. And explain why you’re asking: You’re not prying, you just want to be able to help in the future.
It’s also important to build a simple “in case of emergency” list: medications, physician names, allergies and prior surgeries. Include your parents’ pharmacy name and number so that, if needed, a doctor can verify what’s been filled.
Save this list on your phone. Doctors say it’s important to keep a paper copy in your wallet, too, in case you run out of battery in an emergency.
2. Discuss their living environment.
The second step is to ensure their home is still safe for them. Parents often end up in hospitals or care facilities because their abilities no longer align with their house, Dr. Aronson said.
So, talk to your parents about ways to extend their independence, like clearing clutter, removing loose rugs, improving lighting or adding handrails. A fall can set off a chain reaction — hospitalization, rehab, a nursing home — so frame these tweaks as a way for your parents to stay in control.
It’s also worth discussing where your parents could live if they ever needed to move. Would they want to stay in their home at any cost? Would they be open to downsizing? Would they consider moving in with family or trying assisted living?
Having these conversations early can help maximize your parents’ options, since facility waiting lists can be long, and some places can’t accommodate people with more serious illnesses.
3. Make a plan.
Finally, prepare for a medical emergency. While you can’t rehearse every possible decision, you can be clear about who will speak for your parents if they are incapacitated and what they care about most.
Ask your parents to designate a point person, and make sure everybody knows who it is. When families aren’t aligned or no one’s clearly in charge, messages can get muddled, and care can get delayed. This isn’t about picking a favorite; it’s about choosing the person best positioned to carry out your parents’ wishes, even under pressure. And that may not be you or one of your siblings.
Just as important, talk to your parents about their goals and values. “In an emergency, you’re rushing through the decisions — it’s emotional,” said Dr. Namita Seth Mohta, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “This is a chance to reflect ahead of time.”
Explore what brings your parents joy and meaning, what their biggest worries and their priorities for medical treatment are, and what they want to avoid. For example, a parent might want to maximize time spent at home, do everything possible to survive or avoid being kept alive by machines in the intensive care unit. (You can make this a group activity to avoid your parents’ feeling singled out.)
It’s normal to want to avoid these conversations. “It feels like you’re putting them through something hard, but it’s avoiding something that is far, far worse,” Dr. Aronson said.
THE LATEST NEWS |
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| In Minnesota yesterday. David Guttenfelder/The New York Times |
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Politics
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The Epstein Files
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International
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| In Kyiv. Alina Smutko/Reuters |
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Other Big Stories
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THE SUNDAY DEBATE |
Recent snowstorms have buried street-parked cars in snow. Should someone be allowed to call “dibs” or “savesies” on the parking spot they shoveled out after a blizzard?
Yes. It is an unspoken rule that whoever shovels the parking spot owns it. “Move someone’s dibs marker and park in their spot? You’re asking for trouble,” Wes Bobek wrote on the website HouseKeepUp.
No. Tradition or not, saving a parking spot is illegal. “Why can’t you shovel out a spot, help your neighbors shovel out more spaces and leave the street free?” Mary Wisniewski wrote for The Chicago Tribune.
FROM OPINION |
Since the start of Trump’s second term, the Times editorial board has been tracking the erosion of American democracy. The crackdown on protests in Minnesota moved the needle.
Last year, Elon Musk boasted of “feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” The agency’s demise has heralded a dark shift in America’s values, writes Jeremy Konyndyk.
Here is a column by David French on “The Testament of Ann Lee” and the upside of Christian fellowship.
Introducing Crossplay
Go word to word in our first 2-player game. Spell. Score. Outsmart your opponent. Download app
MORNING READS |
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| Kara Coleen |
Quiz show: Some couples are adding trivia and scavenger hunts into their wedding receptions to keep guests entertained.
Deep freeze: Unusual weather patterns have brought more snow to Florida than Salt Lake City this year.
Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about seven unforgettable dogs at the Westminster dog show.
WINTER OLYMPICS |
Sign up to our Games Briefing to follow the latest from the Olympics, which will run for the next few weeks.
Downhill skiing: Lindsey Vonn, skiing just over a week after tearing her A.C.L., crashed during a run and was airlifted off the course.
Speedskating: Francesca Lollobrigida delivered Italy its first gold medal of the Games, and the day’s best moment: celebrating on the track with her young son.
Figure skating: Ilia Malinin — a.k.a. the Quad God — wasn’t quite so otherworldly in the team event yesterday, but he helped the U.S. reach the final with a second-place finish in the short program.
Hockey: The U.S. women’s team defeated Finland in a decisive 5-0 win.
Snowboarding: Kira Kimura of Japan won the men’s Big Air competition. See his best trick, a switch backside 1980 weddle, broken down frame by frame.
BOOK OF THE WEEK |
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“Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose” by Jennifer Breheny Wallace: “Wallace’s book is mostly populated by ordinary people searching for meaning and connection in their lives,” wrote our critic in her review of “Mattering,” which explores the importance of feeling that we are valued and needed by others. In “Never Enough” (2023), Wallace kicked the tires on achievement culture; here, she shares the big and small ways in which families, friends and strangers work to build connections to one another and their communities. By turns earnest and lighthearted, this best-selling book contains a simple, necessary message about the importance of decency and kindness.
More on books
THE INTERVIEW |
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| Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times |
This week’s subject for The Interview is the best-selling author Michael Pollan, whose forthcoming book, “A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness,” is a highly personal and expansive survey of questions around human consciousness — what it is, what it’s for and what that all might mean for how we live.
I could talk about consciousness all day, but often when I do talk about it with people, I can tell that they view thinking about consciousness as almost akin to navel gazing. Like, it’s interesting to think about, but really what difference does it make? What is your response to that?
I’ve thought a lot about what good is it to think about consciousness, and I came to think that it’s more important than ever. Scientists are learning that more animals and creatures — going all the way down possibly to insects — are conscious. So that’s one interesting issue: We’re sharing consciousness with more creatures. And then the big threat is artificial intelligence and the effort to create a conscious A.I., which is going to be an enormous challenge to this question of what does it mean to be human. Is consciousness something that a machine can possess? Who are we? So I think we’re approaching this kind of Copernican moment of redefinition.
Questions of consciousness, which are really questions about what makes us us, are important questions. But at the same time, they can lead into other questions like: Is there some stable “I” that exists or not? Sometimes thinking about those questions can be destabilizing. Is that just me? Do you have similar apprehensions?
It can be destabilizing, absolutely. One of the reasons people are happy to be less conscious and fill their attention with distractions and drugs is because the mind can be a scary place to visit. We often want to be less aware of what’s going on. There are reasons people avoid going down these rabbit holes. It takes a willingness to risk something.
I apologize if this seems like a woo-woo question, but do you think the absence of something like a stable “self” also means the absence of something like a soul? Do you believe in a soul?
Well, if a soul is something that is indestructible and survives our death, no. But I can’t say anything about the afterlife with confidence. Consciousness has become our secular substitute for the soul; we talk about consciousness the way people in the 16th or 17th century talked about souls. So I think there is a hidden religiosity or spirituality in the whole conversation around consciousness. Somebody asked me recently, Do you think as people get older, they are more interested in consciousness? And I would say yes, and probably for that reason.
Read more of the interview here. Or watch a longer version on YouTube.
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE |
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THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … |
Watch the Puppy Bowl, an annual marathon of doggy drool and cat cameos aimed to encourage pet adoption.
Sleep better with these techniques Olympians follow.
MEAL PLAN |
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| Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Liza Jernow. |
Chili doesn’t have a season, technically, but if it did, we’d be in the heart of it now. In her Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Emily Weinstein recommends a vegetarian skillet chili from Melissa Clark, the “pantriest pantry recipe of them all” — a jumble of canned tomatoes, beans, garlic, onion and spices.
NOW TIME TO PLAY |
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Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were propitiatory and topiary.
Can you put eight historical events — including the first Winter Olympics, Thoreau’s move to Walden Pond and the creation of Miss Piggy — in chronological order? Take this week’s Flashback quiz.
And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands.
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