Two kinds of guides live here, and they’re different enough that it’s worth naming the difference before you choose one.
The first is a series of five conversation frameworks — one for each of the major decisions a family faces as a parent ages. These grow directly out of the structure of my book. They’re built to be used before the conversation, not after: the framing to lead with, the specific questions to ask, what to listen for, and what to do when it doesn’t go the way you planned. I call them the Five Family Conversations.
The second is a set of readiness tools — practical instruments for specific topics that you can work through on your own or with your family before a situation becomes urgent. The driving guide, the money conversation, the emergency plan. Each one addresses a particular domain and is built for a reader in calm conditions who wants to build readiness before they need it.
The two types serve different moments. Don’t conflate them.
The Five Family Conversations
Ron’s book is organized around five conversations — one per chapter — that families need to have as a parent ages. Each guide below expands one of those conversations into a framework you can use: the right moment to have it, how to open it, what to cover, and what to do if it breaks down.
The five conversations follow the arc of caregiving in order. You don’t have to read them in sequence, but understanding where a conversation falls in the arc helps you understand what it’s preparing you for.
Planning Across Generations
Before anything happens. The talk to have when everyone is well.
The conversation that most families keep postponing — because there’s no crisis, no urgent trigger, and it’s easier to wait until the timing is better. It never gets better. This guide is for the adult child who has started worrying but hasn’t done anything yet, and needs a way in.
Creating an Aging-in-Place Plan
When aging at home is the goal — but a real plan for what that requires is missing.
Your parent wants to stay home. That’s a preference, not a plan. This guide covers what staying home actually requires: the home assessment, the care infrastructure, the safety modifications, the honest conversation about what happens when things change.
Coming soon
What Kind of Home Care Do You Need?
The first time you consider bringing in outside help.
One of the most common and most loaded conversations in caregiving — because it involves a stranger in the house, your parent’s resistance, your guilt about not doing it yourself, and siblings who don’t agree on whether it’s necessary. This guide gives you a framework for having it.
Coming soon
Should Your Loved One Stay Home or Move?
The hardest conversation. What to say, when to say it, and what to do when it doesn’t go as planned.
The question that brings more families to this site than any other. Not just because it’s logistically complex — because it’s a parent confronting loss of independence and a family confronting what care they can and can’t actually provide. This guide is for families facing that moment.
Planning the Final Chapter with Dignity, Comfort and Care
End-of-life: how to have the conversation most families never have.
The conversation that doesn’t happen — not because families don’t care, but because nobody knows how to start it. This guide covers advance directives, hospice and palliative care, and how to talk directly about what a parent wants for the end of their life, in a way that honors them.
Coming soon
Readiness tools
Shorter instruments for specific topics — built for a reader who wants to address a particular domain before it becomes urgent. These are not the Five Family Conversations; they’re topic-specific guides for readers in calm conditions building practical readiness.
Is it time to talk about driving?
How to raise the driving conversation with an older parent — and what to do if it doesn’t go well.
Making sense of the money
A framework for the family financial conversation — what you need to know, how to ask for it, and what to do with the answers.
What If? Emergency Plan
Build the plan your family needs before an emergency makes it urgent.