Baby Boomer Insights

Last-minute gifts for boomers and seniors

My past two posts offering suggestions on potential Christmas gifts for boomers brought a cry of "We want more!" So, if you still have a boomer (or even a senior) to shop for, here are some suggestions for last-minute gifts. (And for the record, Edelman does not represent any of these companies/products.)

> Check out BeeWellWishes, a site that offers gifts designed to bring comfort to someone you're thinking of. Read the story behind how the company came to be. It's heartwarming and inspirational. The items they offer are beautifully packaged and a great way to surprise someone who is far away, perhaps serving in the military. The site owner has offered a free t-shirt to the first reader of this blog to post a comment saying "I want a Bee-shirt!"

> Dry skin is the curse of many boomer and senior women. And there are a slew of products that claim to solve the problem. Here's one you may want to consider because it's not only uniquely packaged for gift-giving, but it's made of premium shea butter. Neroli Rose has an entire line of skin care products that are hand-made in the Sudan and contain no alcohol. Since it acts as a natural sunscreen, it's the perfect lotion to use in warm, sunny climates. So if mom's is retired in Florida, this the the skin care line for her!

> Are you concerned about a senior - or even a grandchild - possibly suffering an injury when an electrical item suddenly comes back on after a power outage, circuit breaker trip or an accidental unplugging from the wall? Here's a solution: Security Gate . It's a small lock that stays on the appliance all the time, but can be removed if you want to replace the item. These inexpensive locks make great stocking stuffers.

> Everybody knows someone (maybe it's you!) who wants to know more about how to eat better, but they don't want to spend hours studying nutrition or trying to decide what's good for them. I liked this new book, Nutrition At Your Fingertips by Elisa Zied, M.S., R.D., C.D.N. She offers tips on food allergies, vitamins,burning calories, portions, and balancing food and fitness.

> Dog lovers will appreciate the new Top Dogs and Their Pets, a coffee table book that features famous people and their pets (mostly dogs). In addition to the outstanding photos, you'll learn the story of the special relationship between the owner and animal. The cover features the granddaddy of all dog lovers, Ceasar Milan. This is a hot item, so it may take a little hunting to find, but it's worth it!

> How about a free gift? Try PropProfs, a site that lets you boost your brainpower through over 4,000 brain games and puzzles. But the fun part comes in here - you can actually create your own games, upload them and share them across the web. What a fun way to challenge your long-distance parents and grandchildren!

What ideas for last-minute gifts would you like to share with readers? Post them here!

Practical holiday gifts for boomers

Some people know it's fall by looking at a calendar, others by the feel of the air. Me? I just look in my mailbox. I know it's fall when I start seeing Christmas catalogs. This year, though, I'm getting as many pitches to my blog and into my e-mail as I am in my snail mail box. Most of them I toss as irrelevant or uninteresting, but I have come across a few that I thought were worth looking into. Check these out:

> FastPencil lets you write that memoir or children's story or family history you've been meaning to get around to and then publish it. Would-be authors can collaborate with others, upload pictures and solicit feedback until they get it just right, then publish an e-book or a hard copy. Since everyone involved in a project uses the same editing tools on the site, the process goes more smoothly and quickly than the typical back-and-forth of book publishing. The basic service is free, but the site makes its money from offering premium services, such as enabling you to sell your book through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and over 2,000 additional channel partners. They also offer authoring services. What a great gift it would be for boomers and their parents to document their stories for a family legacy!

> Of course, if you're going to write that book, you may need a little help boosting your memory. I subscribe to Bill Cosby's philosophy that our memories are actually in our butts. Think about it. How many times do you go into a room to get something, then find yourself standing there wondering why you're in that room? Just go back to where you were, sit down, and it'll jog your memory! Or... another way would be to follow a 4-week program designed to boost your memory through a combination of food, moves and games. It's called the Brainpower Game Plan and it was created by Cynthia R. Green, PhD, founder of Mt. Sinai's Memory Enhancement Program. She has teamed up with Prevention Magazine to offer a book outlining ways to increase your everyday brain power and prevent  age-related brain disorders later in life. According to Prevention's web site,  readers who tried the plan boosted their everyday memory by up to 78 percent. I plan to check this out, especially after realizing I had to look up the name of the program and the author's name twice while writing this blog!

> Just in time for flu season comes a web site that solves that problem of wanting to provide a hot bowl of chicken soup to your parents, kids or friends who are too far away for you to just drop by. SpoonFulofComfort.com will deliver homemade chicken soup to anyone in a 64 oz jar (4-6 servings) that is reusable and recyclable. A portion of the profits are donated to the American Cancer Society. According to Dr. Steven Rennard, a specialist in pulmonary medicine, chicken soup does in fact provide actual health benefits. I can't tell you how often I've wanted to send chicken soup (one of my favorite comfort foods) to someone and yet, incredibly, it never dawned on me to see if I could actually do that on the Internet!

> If you're one of the 34 million people in the sandwich generation caring for your parents and your children, you can probably appreciate - and learn from - Gloria Barsamian's new book, "Sustenance and Hope for Caregivers of Elderly Parents." She offers tips and advice on how to deal with such a major life change in a way that preserves your sanity and relationships. Barsamian's insights are drawn from 28 years as a social worker helping families deal with catastrophic illness.

I'd love to hear some of your suggestions for gifts to give boomers this holiday season. I'll write another column soon with the collection of ideas.

Listen up: Energizer survey reveals boomers risk relationships because of vanity about their hearing

I think I've stumbled upon a good restaurant concept that will ensure boomers come there in droves: DON'T PLAY THE FRIGGIN MUSIC SO LOUD!!!

Last night, Ralph and I went out to dinner with friends to a restaurant we hadn't been to before in East Cobb, just north of Atlanta. It's called The Paper Mill Grill. The food was delicious and the service was outstanding. And who doesn't love those cute little shot glasses of tiny desserts. It would have been a perfect evening except that we spent so much of it yelling across the table at one another.

I'm quite hard of hearing, as is one of our boomer dinner companions, but at least we both wear hearing aids. Still, we couldn't hear one another very well above the noise.  I noticed several boomers around us leaning across tables to talk as well. Odds are, though, they were having a worse time hearing than we were because they refuse to wear hearing aids.

A new "All Ears" Hearing Survey by Energizer reveals that while a whopping 99 percent of boomers wear some kind of corrective eyewear at least for some tasks, only 11 percent wear a hearing aid to correct a hearing problem. And yet, 72 percent said they believe their hearing impairment negatively affects their relationships with their adult children.

One in three gave appearance, discomfort and the sense that hearing aids make them feel old as their excuse not to wear them.

This totally baffles me. Boomers have always been proud of the fact they have great relationships with their children, bragging that they're friends, they vacation together, they hang out, etc. And yet, vanity is keeping some from wearing a hearing aid. The survey asked boomers' adult children if their parents needed help with hearing and 44 percent said yes. Furthermore, almost half reported that a parent's lack of hearing affects their relationship with them.

So, what gives? Boomers are fine with wearing those stupid looking Bluetooth devices on their side of their head. Many think it's cool to walk around with ear buds stuck in their ears. Their vanity has driven some companies to offer hearing aids that actually look like bluetooth devices. Others even offer aids in fashionable colors.

Meanwhile, boomers flock to have our knees replaced, get nipped and tucked, change hair color and drive sports cars all in the name of looking younger. Do you suppose these same people really don't get it that saying, "Can you speak up?" or "I'm sorry. I didn't catch that" or "Excuse me?" is a clue that maybe it's time they wear an aid not for themselves, but for others?

May is Better Hearing and Speech Month. With family vacations coming up, and perhaps even with impending job interviews, perhaps now is the time for boomers to admit that a hearing impairment is no more an age giveaway than glasses are.

Like the Energizer bunny, hearing aids can help you keep going.... and going... and going. And best of all, for those times when you just get tired of listening, you can take them off for instant relief. So when the restaurant won't turn down the music, turn off the restaurant!

How to train your boomer brain in just minutes a day

A couple of days before Christmas, my 89-year-old mother-in-law fell and broke her wrist and hip. She just returned home this week (way too early, in my opinion, but it was made clear to me that my opinion doesn't matter). Anyway, while she was in rehab, we offered to bring her whatever she needed: clothes, favorite foods, books, magazines, etc. After several tries, I finally hit upon the one thing she obviously really appreciated: the puzzle section from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She once told me it's the main reason she subscribes to the paper.

So, each day, I saved the Living section of the paper to take to her so she could work on the puzzles. "I think they keep my brain sharp," she'd comment every few days. And she must be right. In the 27 years I've been married to her youngest son, she has amazed me frequently with her ability to remember and understand things. (Mind you, it doesn't make her any less stubborn.)

Turns out, she's right, though. Puzzles and games that give the noodle a workout are not only effective, they're gaining popularity with Boomers. I've written here before about brain fitness games by Nintendo and others and I'm starting to see these products get a lot more attention these days. (Or maybe I just didn't remember seeing anything about it because my own brain hadn't been trained.)

Well, recently I learned about an online brain fitness company called HAPPYneuron("Brain Fitness for Life"). Using a guest password provided by the company so I could give it a try, I decided to put my own brain skills to the test. Oh my! I've never had so much fun being so humiliated. I'm not exactly the President of MENSA, but I can usually hold my own in a room of peers. But HAPPYneuron whipped my boomer brain a few times! I can't wait to challenge my husband and brainiac kids on some of these games!

HAPPYneuron offers games and puzzles that test five specific skill areas; memory, attention, language, executive, and visual/spatial. Now, using a new visual index, once you test yourself in each area, you can see how you compare with others your age and gender. There's even an online coach that suggests exercises you should try and keeps you from defaulting to the things you're good at by offering a balance brain workout. It's a good thing, too, because I would keep doing the language puzzles and executive skill building games all the time. That's because I have been chagrined at my inability to master the memory and visual/spatial games. By the way, that's part of the beauty of these games: each can be played a different levels of difficulty, so it's darn near impossible to master them all. The system keeps track of your interactions, so you can see your own progression over time as well.

What I love about HAPPYneuron is that it's always available. Anybody with access to the Internet and 33 cents a day can use the site. (Monthly membership is $9.95 and annual membership is $99.95). It's also designed to let you do meaningful exercises in as little as 10 minutes (in case you need a brain break from a work task, for instance), or as long as several hours.

The games were developed and validated by a team of neurologists, cognitive psychologists, and educational scientists specifically to slow the natural effects of aging on the brain, according to Hillary Money at BlastMedia, the PR firm that reps the site.

Expect the trend toward boomer brain fitness to grow. I think we'll see brain fitness programs and brain coaches become commonplace, especially for the boomer set. I'd love to see insurance companies offer incentives for people who participate in brain fitness programs as part of a preventative health program. People get inventives to quit smoking. Why not reward those who work at keeping their minds sharp?

How about you? Are you taking specific measures to boost your boomer brain? Tell me what's working for you and what you'd recommend. Meanwhile, you'll find me challenging my boomer peers at HAPPYneuron. MENSA, bring it on!

I'm dreaming of a Boomer Christmas (and that means feeling and looking better!)

Like millions of other Americans, I spent part of the Thanksgiving weekend shopping for bargains. There were plenty to be had, for sure.  It occurred to me by the end of the day that anyone who's shopping for Boomers is in luck. All you have to do is look for cool new offerings that help us look and feel better. Interestingly, none of the best  items I saw are actually targeted to Boomers and that's part of the secret of their success. We just want what other generations want: cool, helpful gifts that make us better in some way. Here are some  items I found particularly intriguing:

> Can't hear well or have family member who could use a boost? Then try the world's first disposable hearing aid, called the Songbird flexfit. For those with mild to moderate hearing loss (that would be millions of Boomers), it's the first time a high-quality digital hearing aid has been made available for gift-giving. At only $79 for an aid that lasts 400 hours, or about 3-4 months, it's a bargain. (Full disclosure here - Songbird is an Edelman client, but even if they weren't I have to say, as a person who wears aids, this product rocks!)

> Want to keep your mind sharp? Everywhere I turned, I saw displays for BrainAge and other electronic-based products targeted at those who want to "train your brain" through a series of fun games that test your math skills, memory skills, or even music ability. These games were getting front and center attention in many of the stores I was in, often touting how "fun" it is to play games on the same kind of devices as your grandchildren. I was thinking more  about challenging peers.

> What Boomer isn't thinking about getting in better shape in 2009? Apparently, the way to do it is with the Nintendo Wii Fit system. I like to fantasize that I'll get so fit using this fun gaming system, the Wii people would be after me like Subway chased Jared. So far, it's working. I've gotten quite a workout just looking for one in stock for less than $100 (just for the Wii Fit, btw. The console is another $300+).

> All this running around made me a prime target for the new Dr. Scholl's Footmapping kiosk. I was skeptical when I first heard about this system (despite the fact Dr. Scholl's is an Edelman client) that measures your feet and identifies where you put the most pressure on them, then recommends a specific orthotic for your shoes. But after trying Dr. Scholl's, I was amazed and pleased that these orthotics were as good or better than the $600+ ones I purchased through my orthopedic doctor. I got the lower back pain relief I was seeking.

> Like many Boomers, I found myself standing outside a place in the mall that offered to whiten my teeth and "take years off" in less than 30 minutes for only $99. It seemed too good to be true, so I decided to wait and research it. I'm glad I did. Turns out it's probably not such a good idea after all.  I'll stick with the Crest Whitestrips, which my dentist has never taken issue with.

> As a longtime victim of insomnia, the NightWave Sleep Assistant caught my eye this year. It claims to be "like your own personal sleep coach" by getting your breathing to synchronize with the little blue wave. As the wave movement becomes slower, supposedly so does your breathing until you easily  fall to sleep. I love the idea of this, especially the whole concept of having a personal sleep coach. Is there anything you can't get a coach for now?

One  hot item this year that I did buy is a turntable with a USB port that lets you convert old albums into digital files on your computer hard drive. It doesn't do a thing for my looks, but it's a great way to feel better. There's nothing like dusting off Beatles, Eagles, Billy Joel and Rod Stewart LPs and rocking out to them on the iPod!

You know what I really appreciate this time of year? The Internet. Like many Boomers, I like to check out items in the store, but actually comparison shop and buy online, which is what I've been doing most of the evening now. It's great. I'm saving money and time and I feel good about that. BTW, if you want to do this too, try www.pricegrabber.com, www.dealio.com, and www.froogle.com.

How about you? What are your favorite Boomer gifts this year?