空巢老人Life of Empty-nesters

With the deepening of the aging of society, there are a growing number of empty-nesters, which has become a social problem can not be ignored. When the children leave home due to reasons such as work, study, marriage, leaving their middle-aged parents at home, empty-nesters will produce the symptoms of mental disorders, known as the family “empty-nest”syndrome.

隨著社會老年化的加深，空巢老人的數量也越來越多，這已經成為了不容忽視的社會問題。當孩子們由于工作，學習，婚姻等原因離開家，留下中年父母在家的時候，空巢老人產生精神障礙癥狀，也稱為家庭“空巢”綜合征。

Some empty-nesters can live a good life after retire, especially those in city. Most of them live in the same city with their children so that they can visit each other often. Besides, they can participate in various group activities. For example, some middle-aged people attend to universities for the elderly for further study, while others join the choir or some other public service activities. By these activities, empty-nesters can eliminate of loneliness and realize their own values.

有的空巢老人退休后可以過上很好的生活，尤其是那些城市里的。他們大部分都和孩子住在同一個城市，這樣就可以經常看望彼此。此外，他們還可以參加各種各樣的集體活動。比如，有的中年人參加老年大學進一步進行學習，而其他人則參加合唱團喝著一些其他公共服務活動。通過參加這些活動，空巢老人可以消除孤獨，意識到自己的價值。

While in rural area, situations get worse. Most young people work in city, leaving their elderly parents at home to take care of themselves. In rural area, there are much less activities for elderly so that they are busy with the farm work all the day. And some elderly look after their grand-children, which is the main task for elderly in the country.

From the description above, we can know that some elderly people can live a good life although they’re empty-nesters. However, it’s our responsibility to care for our parents and our care is what they really need in life. So, no matter how busy you are, remember to care about them, talk to them frequently.

而在農村地區，情況越來越糟。大部分年輕人在城市工作，把他們年長的父母留在家讓他們自己照顧自己。在農村地區，老年活動更少，因而他們一整天都忙于農活。而且有的老人要照看孫子，這成為了農村老人的一項主要任務。從以上的描述我們可以知道，有的老人可以過得很好，盡管他們是空巢老人。然而，照顧老人是我們的責任，他們生活上真正需要的是我們的照顧。因此，不管你有多忙，記得要照顧他們，經常和他們聊天。