OT: elder family member game ideas

[Scottysabres]

Hey all, I have a 77 yr old stepdad who’s been at Gates Cardio/Buf Gen for 7 months now. He’s due home the 18th. Had a pacemaker installed, triple bypass, cow valve installed on heart. He fought an infection for 5 months.

My step brother, his bio son tells me he plays games on his phone most days. I’d like to get him a gaming system for home, he’s a huge outdoor sportsman. If any of you graduated from sweet home school district in the last 30 years, you know him, and probably loved him. He was known as Mr. K. Otherwise known as Mr. Kokanovich. He was an art teacher and the football coach.

in any event, I need an elderly friendly game system for him, preferably with hunting or fishing games that are fantastic. Any input greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Eleven]

I cannot help with gaming systems, because my parents are beyond that.

I can say that Yahtzee, Uno, stuff like that, and some good jigsaw puzzles have helped a bit.  Also some light-level puzzle books like Sudoku.

 

Good luck & God bless your stepdad.

Edited 19 hours ago by Eleven

[K-9]

1 hour ago, Scottysabres said:

Hey all, I have a 77 yr old stepdad who’s been at Gates Cardio/Buf Gen for 7 months now. He’s due home the 18th. Had a pacemaker installed, triple bypass, cow valve installed on heart. He fought an infection for 5 months.

My step brother, his bio son tells me he plays games on his phone most days. I’d like to get him a gaming system for home, he’s a huge outdoor sportsman. If any of you graduated from sweet home school district in the last 30 years, you know him, and probably loved him. He was known as Mr. K. Otherwise known as Mr. Kokanovich. He was an art teacher and the football coach.

in any event, I need an elderly friendly game system for him, preferably with hunting or fishing games that are fantastic. Any input greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

Not sure what platforms they play on,  but I’d guess Playstation would.

Best of luck to your dad. 

Edited 18 hours ago by K-9

[Jorcus]

If you want some peaceful zen type activities. My 93 yo father loves the online jigsaw puzzles. My wife has a paint by number app on her kindle tablet. Both are low stress time killers. 

[Doohickie]

2 hours ago, Scottysabres said:

Hey all, I have a 77 yr old stepdad who’s been at Gates Cardio/Buf Gen for 7 months now. He’s due home the 18th. Had a pacemaker installed, triple bypass, cow valve installed on heart. He fought an infection for 5 months.

My step brother, his bio son tells me he plays games on his phone most days. I’d like to get him a gaming system for home, he’s a huge outdoor sportsman. If any of you graduated from sweet home school district in the last 30 years, you know him, and probably loved him. He was known as Mr. K. Otherwise known as Mr. Kokanovich. He was an art teacher and the football coach.

in any event, I need an elderly friendly game system for him, preferably with hunting or fishing games that are fantastic. Any input greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Not joking.  Does he like to play cards?

[Scottysabres]

4 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Not joking.  Does he like to play cards?

Ya, we’re old schoolers, nickel, dime, quarter poker every thanksgiving and Christmas.

[5th line wingnutt]

There are lots of games at cardgames.io   I play hearts mostly but there are many card games, yahtzee, sudoku, and ohers.  My wife plays candy crush saga on her kindle.

[Scottysabres]

1 hour ago, 5th line wingnutt said:

There are lots of games at cardgames.io   I play hearts mostly but there are many card games, yahtzee, sudoku, and ohers.  My wife plays candy crush saga on her kindle.

Ya, we play them all. Since mom passed 2 years ago+ and me and my 2 siblings are working 50 to 60+ hrs a week to really drive on those 401k’s in our final stretch before retirement it’s rough tough to be there as often as we’d like. Hell most weeks I’m at 65+ hrs, and at 55 yrs old I’m dragging ass. I was thinking something that can keep his mind working.

[Mr Peabody]

For $50 a year you can get games from NYT.  There’s 10 games including a couple crosswords

[JoeSchmoe]

18 minutes ago, Scottysabres said:

Ya, we play them all. Since mom passed 2 years ago+ and me and my 2 siblings are working 50 to 60+ hrs a week to really drive on those 401k’s in our final stretch before retirement it’s rough tough to be there as often as we’d like. Hell most weeks I’m at 65+ hrs, and at 55 yrs old I’m dragging ass. I was thinking something that can keep his mind working.

Man... That's a lot of time working! Are you hourly? OT?

[Scottysabres]

39 minutes ago, JoeSchmoe said:

Man... That's a lot of time working! Are you hourly? OT?

Hourly

ya, OT.

grossing 140 to 150 a year. It’s a sacrifice to be sure.

Edited 13 hours ago by Scottysabres

[JoeSchmoe]

2 minutes ago, Scottysabres said:

Hourly

ya, OT.

grossing 140 to 150 a year. It’s a sacrifice to be sure.

Good to hear you're getting rewarded for your time. Keep the eye on the prize!

[PerreaultForever]

Really old people seem to like cribbage a lot. 

If it's a video game I'd suggest something like video golf. Controllers can get hard to use for seniors for any games where there's constant action or movement. Stuff like golf let's you take your time and tee up shots etc. Racing games are next to impossible for any older people with arthritis or such. 

[Indabuff]

Plenty.  I have a PS5 and normally purchase Play Stations.  Imo, more games are geared toward solo and adventure play.  My son (10) has a fishing game and he enjoys it. 

Way of the Hunter

Call of the Wild 

Hunting Simulator 

______________

Call of the Wild Angler

Ultimate Fishing Simulator 

Fishing Planet

The Catch:  Carp and Coarse

Bassmaster

All of the above are available on PS4 or PS5.  PS4 games can be played on PS5 but not vice versa.

You could probably get a PS4 relatively cheap. 

Also I buy games used.   Games are expensive nowadays.  Look into used at GameStop or on Ebay.  Much cheaper.  Hunting and fishing games also have a tendency to be cheaper anyhow.

Good luck.  Glad to hear he's coming home.

 

 

[Scottysabres]

8 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Really old people seem to like cribbage a lot. 

If it's a video game I'd suggest something like video golf. Controllers can get hard to use for seniors for any games where there's constant action or movement. Stuff like golf let's you take your time and tee up shots etc. Racing games are next to impossible for any older people with arthritis or such. 

I’ve played cribbage since I was 8/9 yrs old. I realize 8 or 9 is a ripe old age, but at 55 I guess I’m a fossil now 😊

by the way, 15 for 2, 15 for 4 and a double run for 8 = 12 points for the hand. Watch’ya got? 😂

[Scottysabres]

10 hours ago, JoeSchmoe said:

Good to hear you're getting rewarded for your time. Keep the eye on the prize!

I have often told the young if you aren’t looking at the trades, especially electrical, you have 0 room to bitch about money.

I’m an E&I tech, Electrical and Instrumentation. The field is short staffed by up to 45%, and with my now 30 yrs or so in with experience on both installation and maintenance I can pretty much write my own ticket. Was it a long road of 6 or 7 days, 12 to 14 hrs a day most years? Yes it was, but the dividends its paid in the last 10 yrs is worth every drop of blood, sweat and toil put in. The ones young that get in now are the ones that will be thankful by 40-45 yrs old.

edit: I should point out industrial electrician. I don’t do residential or commercial. Power plants, major industrial facilities, that’s where both the education and the money is. I paid my own way through the apprentice progam, today may be different, but $49k for my initial 5 yr apprenticeship.

Edited 2 hours ago by Scottysabres

[JoeSchmoe]

12 minutes ago, Scottysabres said:

I have often told the young if you aren’t looking at the trades, especially electrical, you have 0 room to bitch about money.

I’m an E&I tech, Electrical and Instrumentation. The field is short staffed by up to 45%, and with my now 30 yrs or so in with experience on both installation and maintenance I can pretty much write my own ticket. Was it a long road of 6 or 7 days, 12 to 14 hrs a day most years? Yes it was, but the dividends its paid in the last 10 yrs is worth every drop of blood, sweat and toil put in. The ones young that get in now are the ones that will be thankful by 40-45 yrs old.

edit: I should point out industrial electrician. I don’t do residential or commercial. Power plants, major industrial facilities, that’s where both the education and the money is. I paid my own way through the apprentice progam, today may be different, but $49k for my initial 5 yr apprenticeship.

I'm in a similar field. Protection and Control in the utility sector. We work on the equipment that makes the lights go out. We don't have any official recognition as a trade, but it's specialized work. With enough experience you can go pretty much anywhere as we're in such short supply. 

[Scottysabres]

1 minute ago, JoeSchmoe said:

I'm in a similar field. Protection and Control in the utility sector. We work on the equipment that makes the lights go out. We don't have any official recognition as a trade, but it's specialized work. With enough experience you can go pretty much anywhere as we're in such short supply. 

It’s bizzaro world in my view at just how high the % of kids went to college and got worthless degrees. When I started my journey I was in my mid 20’s, so many of my younger years friends and peers chose college, now many of them are like dam your doing great. What they didn’t see was the drive, the commitment, the dedication to stick with it, learn from my mistakes and always push forward with field specific knowledge. It does eat up time, but the eye on the prize is what drove me to where I am at now. Something many of the young I’ve noticed severely lack.

[JoeSchmoe]

Both my kids are on the college path... as their high school culture still plays upon the old adages of a degree being the be all end all. One is in 1st year, one will start in 2027.

Both my kids work hard, but it's a supply and demand world and the supply of average college grads greatly exceeds the number of good tradespeople. I've been absolutely clear that unless they're ready to really hustle through school and their early working years, they are not going to have the lifestyle they have now.