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My mom is 93. She has cognitive decline and several health comorbidities. She seems to be settling into RC after 6 weeks, in a shared room.


She keeps asking for more and more stuff from her home, and wants to use up all available space for her "things", including her neighbor's empty spaces and the common area in the room.


Lately she's been asking for cash. She wants $1000 in cash for "Safety", even though there is nowhere for her to spend it or use it.


I dropped off all her expensive jewelry, which she insisted on, but now she also wants the $1000 cash.


The home DOES NOT recommend either expensive jewelry or cash on site, for obvious reasons.


It's her stuff and her money, but I also feel responsible for helping protect her from herself, or from theft or loss at the care home.


I don't want to deprive her of her things, but her requests seem never ending and the large sums of cash and expensive jewelry at the care home worry me. She seems to want to "Impress" some of the other residents.


Any advice or recommendations?

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Hi,
Did you get the jewelry insured? Many facilities recommend that you purchase renter's insurance for hard to replace items like a nice picture.
You can actually buy realistic 'fake' money on Amazon, but would need to make sure that she didn't have a way to spend it.
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Yeah, no. My advice is to get her fake cubic zirconia 'diamond' rings and bracelets, and give her no more than $20 in 'spending money' which won't be spent b/c there's nowhere to spend it. Get her a small lock box with a key to store her 'valuables' in, and that's it. My mother is 94 and lives in Memory Care Assisted Living in a private room. As it is, the caregivers are 'stealing' her old bras and eating up 'all of her snacks' which naturally isn't true, so if I were to bring her cash or her expensive jewelry, fuggedaboutit. Someone would be 'stealing' it on a daily basis, I guarantee it. She too continuously asks me to bring her the 2.5 karat solitaire engagement ring she NEVER EVER wore but wants to wear now to 'show off' to the other residents who she claims 'wear huge diamonds and fancy jewelry' which is a lie. She needs to keep up with the Joneses is what runs through her mind. Fact is, none of the women there wear more than a wedding ring, including my MOTHER!

It's a mess waiting to happen if you comply with your mother's wishes. I'd tell her the RC forbids cash and expensive jewelry to be in the residents' rooms, and that's that. To take it up with the management if she has an issue with it, and then change the subject. Whenever I tell my mother to 'fight her own battles', that's usually enough to get her to drop the subject!

Good luck!
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Can you buy her some "fake" big rocks to impress the others? And tell her she can get money as she needs it, but the CH wont let her have cash on site? I agree with getting insurance if you can..
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Tell her it isn't allowed -- period, end of discussion. Then get that stuff out of there ASAP.
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Absolutely don’t go through the heartache of dealing with theft. MIL1 wanted her engagement ring when she first went to the NH. A man came in, asked to look at it, then walked off with it before she even worked out who he was. We came to the conclusion that it was probably the partner of a previous in-home carer. MIL2 wanted money. DH gave her a purse with less than $50 in it, topped it up each visit, and talked with her about what she’d spent it on (which she enjoyed telling him).

The theft heartache is not just about mother’s loss, it’s the worry of whoodunnit, accusations against staff, other residents, reports to police etc. Just bad bad news. Don’t rely on insurance – you can’t insure your heart!
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The large sums of cash & nice things will be off her hands probably before sunset. Sigh.

I've seen many ladies with fake jewels, thrift shop purses with photocopied cash in it.

I hope you don't learn the hard way 😕
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Isn’t it interesting how your mom wants to impress others with her jewelry? That generation were part of the Hollywood ‘glamour’ era. My mom once wore make up for cataract surgery! 😆 hahaha

Mom loved dressing up! That generation never wanted to look like they were home doing housework. Mom put on lipstick to walk to her mailbox!

Still, I agree with others, buy her inexpensive costume jewelry to wear. Hey, I like the suggestion made about the ‘realistic fake money’ too. Maybe inform the staff that she has it in case she tries to buy something. I don’t know the specific policies at her facility. I know of some residents in our assisted living facilities that will have take out food delivered to them in their rooms.

I would hate to see your mom’s jewelry stolen. My dad’s watch was stolen in a nursing home that he did rehab in after his stroke. Unfortunately, thefts can occur.
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XenaJada May 2021
My grandmother’s hearing aids were stolen at a NH
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As others have already said, the best thing you can do is get anything of value, esp cash, out of there! Fake money and nice expensive looking fake jewelry is okay. The rest, nope. If she had her own room with a locking door, maybe, but it would still be iffy because staff will likely come in to clean, get laundry, etc.

IF she can still understand, I would tell her you will keep it safe and can bring certain items for wearing if you are going out with her. In most cases, there shouldn't be a need for cash (my mother was the same way at home - she kept a stash, but no idea if she used it all up or it was taken. She had shown me years ago a stash she kept on hand in case she "had to get outta here." Get out of here and go where? If you drive or fly, credit cards will pay. If you eat out, same thing. Cash - I almost never have any and I get by just fine!

It's just too easy for someone to walk into a room and walk off with stuff. In mom's MC unit, it was locked down, so if another resident took something (it isn't really stealing for them!) eventually it might show up. Mom's diamond and wedding band went missing before the move to MC. Suspect is one of the aides we tried hiring, only 1 hr/day, to get her used to it, but that didn't last when she refused to let them in. I haven't been through every box of jewelry, so it could show up, but I doubt it. She was wearing some other ring I'd never seen before, so perhaps the aide swapped with her? Even nice clothes can go AWOL. When mom passed, they still weren't allowing anyone in, esp not the MC unit, so they boxed up everything. Going through the stuff, I've found random towels that were not hers and several items of clothing that were definitely not hers (too small.) Despite telling me each person's laundry is done separately, it isn't. When we were going to ditch her undies and put briefs in place, there were many of those stretchy undies - NEVER had she worn those! In the boxes, there were MORE. I tossed all of them. Most of the clothes, whether hers or not, will be stuffed in a donation box. Towels - setting them aside for use with the cats here.

It's best to keep anything that is "nice" and of value, whether actual or sentimental, out of these places. It doesn't always happen, but why take that chance? Have them stored so that when needed you can access these items. Otherwise, keep them at home and NO cash (fake money or a very very small amount - instead of a $10 bill, give her 10 singles, as it looks like more to them!_
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Your Mom is not competent to make this decision, so it is a simple "Oh, no, we can't possibly do that; it is NOT ALLOWED." That for the money.
As to the things, she should be allowed to have as much of her personal stuff as will fit into her personal space. She can discuss with roommates what they think about the communal areas, but I would think rules will limit her to her own space, which of course has to be kept safe and clutter free for mobility concerns.
You will have to learn to tell her that some things are not possible. The cash is one of them.
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Your Mom has Dementia she can no longer make informed decisions. I would not take in jewelry or money. They will be stolen. Like said, tell her its not allowed. And that roommate is paying for half of that room. If she had nothing on her side, Mom does not fill it up. She only gets her area. Not sure how you are going to get around this. Maybe you can get an aide or Nurse to tell Mom she is limited in what she can have. May listen to them better than u. My Mom did.
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Her “nice things” are going to disappear. Between residents with dementia who have “happy hands”, visitors who see an easy mark, less than stellar staff and then those things that flat go into the garbage or down the sink or toilet. Plus they inevitably find a new friend and give them things & vice versa. My mom had couple of shoe boxes full of hair accessories, she somehow acquired. Not just clips & barrettes but those “fascinators”. How it happened was a mystery she went with to her grave.

Are you totally good on losing her good jewelry? If not, then swap stuff out for costume jewelry. The facility is not responsible for things lost, misplaced, stolen, etc.

she cannot be taking over her roommate space. Things like this can be a real problem. If her roomie is in a well established group or lunch bunch, she will tell the others and mom will get frozen out. Mean Girls NH version. When you go to visit her and find she’s taken over roomie’s space, please just quietly move things back, take stuff down. Eventually she will stop.

Please Don’t bring her more stuff, just take control of the situation.
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Dentures and eyeglasses go missing at care facilities never to be found again. Jewelry & cash would be a definite no.

If you’re her POA it’s up to you to protect her assets any way you can if she has cognitive disabilty. I would just tell her it’s not allowed there.

My mom does have her wedding band & diamond on at the nursing home she’s in but it’s just a small 1/3 carat ring. They have already lost her teeth & glasses
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Make sure whatever expensive things you give her are insured. If you can't get her to accept cheaper costume jewelry, then maybe you can make a deal with her to not have all her expensive things, but a few at a time and rotate items in and out. Say a few pieces of jewelry only, a few of her good display items not all. Make sure you have a list of all items she that are in her room. Things do go missing.

As far as money - no $1000. Does she need money where she is? Or is it more like a nursing home and she needs no money. If she needs some money for incidentals I wouldn't give her any more than $100. If like a nursing home and no money needed see if you can't get away with play money that looks real but is larger. Of course depending on her cognition, it may fall flat if she knows money isn't real.

When dad went from shard apt with mom to SN, I didn't take away his wedding ring. I felt it was too big a deal to him at that time. However after a couple months I should have slipped it off his finger and taken it back to mom or home with me. Shortly before he died the ring went missing. He'd lost so much weight the ring probably fell off. Mom was heartbroken about the loss and I'm pretty mad at myself for not checking regularly about his ring. I also doubt the staff looked very hard for it.

Dad also wanted money - kept complaining about it. Mom left a few $1s behind form him, hid it among his clothes and told him where she'd put it. Of course he then couldn't remember where it was - so mom took back his money. He once asked me didn't he have to pay for his meals - and was amazed when I told him his meals were included in his rent.

Good luck.
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Mom's AL was like high school with cliques and mean girls. They always seemed to be trying to one up each other. When Mom told them we had sold her house one lady badgered her to buy a diamond ring!

Just because Mom asks for something be cautious, you should put the staff in an awkward position if some thing goes missing and it turns out your Mom has misplaced it or another resident wandered off with it.

Can you put a small safe in her room, put everything she wants in it and keep the key? Then she is reassured she has her valuables and can look at them when you visit.
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When i moved mt stepmom from her IL 2 bedroom apt into AL, I donated most of her furniture and household goods. If she asked for something that we no longer had, i told her it was " in storage" and I would bring it next time. If she asked again, "oh. I'm so sorry I forgot. I'll try to remember next time". She would usually forget about it by the next visit.
As far as cash, I would bring her about $50 in $1 bills. It looked like a lot and she had money to tip the lady in the beauty salon($2 at a time, lol). It was more for security for her, I think, and it was little enough that if she lost it or misplaced it, we wouldn't go bankrupt.
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