Elderly neighbors may try to keep up with all of the daily chores that everyone else has, but eventually they can no longer do what everyone else does. As they age and their bodies are racked with arthritis or their minds try to work around and through dementia, they forget to do the little things, like lawn maintenance. If you want to practice "random acts of kindness," here is how helping your elderly neighbors counts towards these everyday acts of kindness and compassion.

Keep Your Neighbors Out of Financial or Legal Trouble

In many cities, grass higher than eight inches is cause for the city to take action. Even though the property may belong to your elderly neighbors, the city will step in (after a warning) and mow down the yard. While that may be a good thing, what is not good is the $100-$300 fee the cities charge these residents to cut the grass. That is quite a large chunk of money for most senior citizens, and finding that they have to pay for something they could not do on their own and the city did instead can leave them in quite a financially painful state.

Then there are the legal ramifications. Some cities have threatened to sue property owners for not keeping their properties tidy. When your elderly neighbor cannot physically mow the lawn, or cannot remember to mow it, that is a very unfortunate series of events. You can prevent all of the above by helping your elderly neighbors with this task on a weekly basis. If you cannot do it personally, paying a landscaping service to do it is definitely a generous and kind act.

Your Elderly Neighbors Would Not Be Forced to Leave Their Home

Often, when elderly people can no longer do daily chores and tasks, or when they are faced with legal and financial troubles with their homes (like the ones mentioned above), their adult children step in. These adult children often force the elderly people to move to an assisted living or nursing home. It creates emotional and psychological upheaval in the lives of these elderly people, which could easily have been prevented if someone close by had decided to help. When you offer to help your elderly neighbors with lawn care, you are taking the initiative to help them stay in their home longer, and staying in their home longer makes them happy and gives them a better quality of life.

For more information, contact companies like Pattie Group, Inc.