I've noticed in recent years my mom really does this "stating the obvious" thing. Example: The other day we were at my inlaws for a visit and my mother-in-law (who can hear well and has no dementia) asked about our (my husband and mine's) new cat. We showed a picture and said her name was Frida. My mom cuts in and starts saying it's a German girl's name. (This is something my inlaws would know.) My mom does stuff like this all the time, though, and it gets annoying, to be frank about it. She'll tell someone she traveled somewhere (England for example) and say stuff like, they speak English there, but with it's not with an American accent. All kinds of obvious things. I don't know why she's like this. She's always thought she was smarter and more sophisticated than just about everyone. On top of that she has this weird thing where she thinks people should do stuff for her. Not shopping, but for example she's not born and raised in America, so she complains that people never wanted to learn her language as a way to get closer to her. (I'm decent in her native language and she has friends from the old country so she gets to speak it pretty often). But she'll complain that Americans don't want to know or learn her language (for her?). My take is, if I moved to Germany, France, Spain, wherever, I expect to speak the native language since it's part of the adjustment. I'm in their world, they're not moving into mine. Another odd thing: She'll say weird borderline racist stuff to people. She'll mention to black people that her daughter voted for Obama. Some people have responded with a "oh, that's nice," or just shrugged it off, but others have been offended. I tell my mom, that's a weird, wrong thing to say, and she'll just go, "Oh, they love to hear that!" I don't agree: She doesn't go and tell white people who her kids have voted for! On the flipside, she is a native German, if someone were to assume she's a Nazi because she's old and German, she'd be furious. If I point that out to her, followed with hey, how about we don't make assumptions based on skin color or a person's homeland, I'm labeled a jerk. Is there a way to work around this or is this a trend among others with aging parents?
Grandma thought she was whispering but the entire place could hear her. It was awful and I finally stopped taking her out. Other than duct tape her mouth shut I didn't know what else to do. I tried to tell her that she should not say such things but she didn't care. I had to actually explain to people that I was so very sorry and that my grandmother had Alzheimer's. No one was rude to me but no one was overly understanding and gracious about it either. Not after my grandma had made such offensive, inappropriate, and hurtful comments.
I don't know of any way to work around it except redirection but if your mom is like my grandma some ignorant comment can come out of nowhere. We can't prepare for everything in every situation. I did a lot of apologizing until I just stopped taking my grandmother out altogether. A part of me thought that she knew exactly what she was saying was wrong because she "whispered" it. She did do and say some funny stuff and we still tell those stories but overall it was a nightmare.
When I'd see a 'situation' coming I'd clamp my claw down on my grandma's bony arm and try to get her away from what I knew was about to happen but that wasn't always effective.
It's not a trend. It's just another symptom of Alzheimer's.
I feel like I have an autistic child that is getting worse instead of better....that is the sad reality of it. I guess all you can do is have a sense of humor about it and wonder what you did wrong in your prior life. lol
I refuse to take my Mom out to eat. I take her everywhere else but the down time waiting for her food is the worst.. She finds someone to insult and if I say anything she just gets louder..