“I’m too old to think five years ahead”. Parent carers of adult children with intellectual disabilities in Sweden

Abstract

In Sweden, most adult people with intellectual disabilities live in group homes. Independent living and independence are highly valued in Swedish politics. Yet there are also parents who live with their adult ‘children’ with intellectual disabilities. This article analyses eight parents’ stories about living with their adult children with intellectual disabilities. They discuss their daily lives and future thoughts concerning their children's living situation. The analysis is conducted from a perspective in which age is seen as a social practice and power structure. The parents in this study violate several norms through their choices. Their daily lives continue to be characterized by the adult children's needs and activities. The parents are aging and the adult children get older, but household chores and responsibilities continue to be distributed in the same way. There is risk that the co-living of parents and adult children will entrench an age structure in which parents are ascribed “eternal” adulthood, never transitioning into old age, while the child remains in “eternal” adolescence.