A mouse got into her bedroom and was living in her sofa. Now she refuses to sleep on her side of the house. We spent 90 thousand dollars 4 years ago for her to come live with us. She has a beautiful bedroom with a walk in closet, nice full bathroom and large den with a breakfast bar and refrig.
She doesn’t cook and had no interest except for watching TV. Now she is in our den almost 24/7 and sleeps in our guest room.
My husband wants his privacy back.
What can I do before it affects our marriage???
She got all new furniture because she couldn’t look at the only 4 year old furniture after it was found.
If she doesn’t get her way she pouts and cries.
We also talked with her Dr and he gave her something to calm her nerves for about a week, upped her anxiety med, and gave her something to help her sleep for only a short period of time.
You tell her to choose. Her side of the house or ALF.
You need to mean it.
Even the most spoiled child recognizes when a situation has reached that point with a parent.
Daddy took me to get a cage with a wheel, food and the wood shavings for their bed. I loved them! I played with my hamsters everyday.
I thought that my hamsters might be tired of staying in their cage and spinning on their wheel so I took some of my kite string to make a little leash to walk them around the house.
I was going to walk them one at the time so I took Oscar out first. I didn’t want to make the string around his tiny neck too tight and he got away. My mom freaked out. She used to call them my pet rodents.
My mother couldn’t sleep knowing that Oscar could crawl on her at night. I looked all over the house but couldn’t find him.
I loved ‘Oscar’ and missed him. Well, three days later she went to put on her high heels for Sunday Mass and Oscar was sitting inside of her shoe.
My mother screamed! I was happy because I knew she must have found Oscar. I quickly put him back in his cage.
Please get a professional out to make sure there aren't any more.
Clean, clean, clean
Seriously, though - your mother has suffered a blow to her confidence. Once you've had an infestation, it's very hard to shake the fear that every scratch and rustle you hear is the little beasties come back again (there is NEVER only one mouse, not unless it's a pet animal).
Reaccustom her to using her side of the house by bringing it into general use for a while. Watch tv there, make snacks, sit with her in her den, use her bathroom.
Used she to be a practical down-to-earth person, or was she always a bit of a Nervous Nelly when it came to creepy crawlies, rodents, snakes and the like?
There are ways to address Mr. Mouse, but there is more going on here.
You and your husband will have to decide now whether to move Mom to ALF. I think 93 might be too advanced for a studio nearby. You will need to be able to discuss this over the next weeks or month, not in a time when there is mouse-hysteria, but in a time when you can calmly decide how to move forward. There will be no perfect solution. You will have a lot to consider, including what assets Mom has.
I think that spending this amount of money on having an elder move in can often not work out well as it is impossible to know whether living together can work for the entire family long term, or to predict the care that will be needed and your abilities to give that care.
I meant, "clean", so it would help with mother's thoughts of the mice being in her room.
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