Kid Time

Planning a Halloween Party for Kids? Here are 25+ of the most fun Halloween Games for Kids ever! These easy DIY Halloween Party Games for kids are sure to be a HUGE hit at your kids Halloween Party! Great for all ages!

Halloween is just around the corner, and I’m in Halloween Party planning mode! This year we’re going to be hosting a Kids Halloween Party, so I put together this list of the BEST Halloween Games for Kids of All Ages! All of these DIY Halloween party games for kids are simple and easy to make using inexpensive household materials that you probably already have on-hand! They’re the perfect entertainment for kids Halloween parties or for Halloween Games Night with the family! 

25+ of the best Halloween party games for kids! Simply click the image or the link to be taken to the accompanying tutorials, printables, and additional information! 

Use posterboard and a cardboard box to create this fun DIY Pumpkin Toss Game and see who can get the most ping pong balls into the Jack O’Lantern’s mouth!

Burst candy and confetti filled balloons in this POP! Goes the Pumpkin version of the carnival classic!

Print and play this oversized Halloween Matching Game from BHG!

Recycled household materials make a super fun Halloween Tin Can Bowling game!

This Spider Race Game is sure to be a huge hit with the kids! Race to get your spider across the finish first!

I absolutely adore this cute spider Halloween Cornhole game! Super easy to make and a TON of fun for all ages!

Plan a Halloween scavenger hunt quickly and easily with this fun printable Halloween Treasure Hunt!

Pin the Spider on the Web in this Halloween-themed twist on the classic game – get the free printable here!

Make a Funkin Pumpkin Toss Game that you can re-use over and over again each year!

This simple Spider Tic Tac Toe is an easy way to keep the kids entertained!

Ghost Races are a fun twist on the classic potato sack race!

Use TP to turn an ordinary bowling set into Mummy Bowling for your Halloween party!

Paper witch’s hats take center stage in this easy DIY Witch’s Hat Ring Toss game.

This simple Halloween Punch game looks like a ton of fun! I know that my boys would LOVE this game!

Or kick things up a decorative notch with this Pumpkin Shaped Halloween Punch!

Egg hunts aren’t just for Easter! Re-use those plastic eggs for this creative and super fun Halloween Egg Hunt!

This adorable printable Monster Mash Bingo is a fun way to entertain your Halloween party guests!

This Candy Corn Guessing Game is a classic party game! Perfect for party guests who prefer less active games!

How awesome does this DIY Feed the Monster Game look? It’s easier to make than you might think!

Play games long after dark with this fun Glow in the Dark Pumpkin Ring Toss!

The Spider Web Game combines balance and speed for a fun Halloween twist on hopscotch!

Make your own Lifesize Pumpkin Memory Game using paper plates and construction paper for a simple game that will keep little ones entertained for ages!

A Popcorn Pumpkin Relay Race is a great way for kids to run around and burn off some energy at your Halloween party!

This DIY Witch’s Pitch game is inexpensively made from simple black foam core board and plastic cauldron party favors – how clever!

This Halloween Ghost Bowling party game could also perform double duty as a Nerf dart target! Either one would be perfect for your Halloween party for kids!

I love the added texture of the ruffles in this great Pin the Face on the Pumpkin game!

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Minute to Win It Halloween Games

30+ Quick & Easy Halloween Crafts for Kids

Halloween Word Search Printable

Easy Halloween Crafts for Teens and Tweens

Pin these Halloween Games for Later!

A Guest Post from Jessica Braider, CEO of The Six O’Clock Scramble 

A few months ago, my family started a new tradition: making dinner together on Sunday evenings. We don’t do it every Sunday, but we do it quite often and the reminder for us to make it happen almost always comes from one of our two boys.

I wish I could say their desire to cook is due to their passion for cooking (they both like it fine, but Legos, playing outside, and drawing are definitely preferred) or because of my Mary Poppins-like ability to make every activity fun.  But, to be totally honest, I think it’s due to a combination of a natural curiosity about food on their part and a lot of hard work and letting go on mine.

You see, I’m a little intense when it comes to the kitchen. My natural inclination is to keep things tidy and efficient, which has created a lot of hiccups along the way—times when I snapped because something spilled, times when I just took over for efficiency’s sake, times when I felt hurt because they lost interest and wandered off.

But, there are a few things I’ve learned through the trials and tribulations that have made the kitchen a place where they now like to be:

1. Give them choices around the kitchen tasks. Especially if your kids are reluctant to join you in the kitchen, offering choices can be a great way to get kids engaged in the cooking because they feel as if they have ownership. Do you want to crack the eggs or mix the ingredients? Do you want to help with the salad or with the sauce? This also means allowing them to choose ingredients when possible. What vegetables would you like to put into the salad you’re making? What toppings should we put on the pizza? What should we grill this evening?

2. Don’t hover. When we hover, we send the message we don’t trust our kids in the kitchen. They sense our anxiety as we watch things happen out of order or differently than we would like. Instead, get them started on a task and then occupy yourself with something else. When you first start cooking with your kids, this might look like pre-measuring and then letting them dump and mix, while you put dishes into the dishwasher. When they are more comfortable and confident in the kitchen, it might be taking the ingredients out for them and then talking them through what they need to measure, while you work on another dish. When they are doing really well, it might be deciding on a dish and then letting them go at it, just making sure you are available for questions. 

3. Allow for escapes. When they lose interest or when something else comes up, let them bow out (making sure they clean up their mess first, of course!). Don’t guilt-trip them or get frustrated with their lack of focus. If they feel like they have to stay, it becomes a burden. The more they enjoy their time in the kitchen with you, the more they will want to stay.

4. Give them tasks that will be fun and helpful. In almost every cooking project, there’s at least one task that will be fun for them and helpful for you. What kid doesn’t love to mash potatoes? Smearing garlic butter on already sliced French bread? That was one of my favorites growing up! Whenever possible, let the job be one where they can point to their accomplishment and say, “I made that!” Assembling a salad from start to finish, mixing up pancake batter, putting the toppings on a Mexican pizza, or scrambling eggs are all tasks that will fill them with pride and make cooking that much more appealing.

5. Be patient. Yes, there will be times when the flour goes flying, the cooking moves more slowly, and you just want to grab the spoon and finish the dish on your own. I’ve been there! It’s ok. Just take a deep breath and remember: in the end, the benefits to their self-confidence and the delicious food will make it all worthwhile!

Create opportunities for competence. Kids are more capable than we think. If we set the right guidelines in terms of safety, kids can do a lot more than we give them credit for. Yes, I was a bit of a wreck the first time I let my son use a paring knife. But I reminded him of the rules of thumb for using a sharp knife, skills we had practiced with butter knives. I held his hand for the first few cuts and then stood by his side to let him try on his own. Would I walk away and leave him with a sharp knife? No. But giving him the opportunity to try it out in a safe environment gave him confidence and pride. See the chart below of developmentally appropriate cooking tasks for each age.

What are you waiting for?  How can you get your kids involved in the kitchen this week?

About the Author

Jessica Braider is a certified health coach and mother of two active and playful boys. As the CEO of The Six O’Clock Scramble, an online meal planning service committed to helping busy families get quick, easy, and delicious meals on the table every night, she fulfills her passion for food and her love for working with parents and children to build healthy and happy families. Jessica received her training as a health coach from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She also holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Michigan. In her downtime, you can find Jessica in the kitchen experimenting with recipes or outside enjoying time with her husband and kids.

The post Leaving a Legacy: Lessons I learned from my Children’s Minister. appeared first on Kids Ministry.

Parenting is hard. It’s tiring. It’s non stop. You get into a rut with it and you get tied down to its routine.

“Quick, get ’em in the bath so we can get them to bed by 7.30 pm,” that sort of thing.

By the time that precious “the kids are asleep let’s have some adult time” rolls around, where you collapse on the couch, maybe with a glass of wine in hand, you’re both often too tired to even have a conversation. The TV gets flicked on and you zone out.

That or you missed the ‘adult time’ boat altogether by falling asleep with your little loves when putting them to bed.  

It’s easy then, and also pretty normal, for the ‘us’ part of the two of you to take a beating. For the connection, that was once so effortless pre-kids, needing to be rekindled or worked on.

Well, last night we rekindled ‘us’ but it was at the expense of being good parents. And now I know that from time to time, this is exactly what we need to do.

Here’s what happened.

A day sleep hijacked our night

I stupidly took both my boys to IKEA (and you can read about why this was so stupid here) and as such, they fell asleep in the car on the long drive home.

Thanks to that damn late day sleep, our nightly routine was out of whack.

“They are not going to go to sleep tonight at any reasonable hour,” I told my tired husband when he walked through the door.

“The car nap has hijacked our night,” I laughed as I made us coffee to fuel us for the long night ahead. One that would include nagging them to eat their dinner, a marathon session of bedtime books and curtain call after curtain call as a little person who just can’t sleep keeps popping out to say hello.

But then we had an idea!

More posts on relationships

Screw parenting

“You know, we should just be bad parents tonight,” my husband said.

“Let them eat chicken nuggets for dinner so we don’t have to fight with them, give them dessert in front of the telly and put Peter Rabbit on continuous play until they fall asleep.”

“I can’t even be bothered with the bath, ” he added.

“Then we can hire a movie, one that WE want to watch, and just check out.”

I was on board.

I couldn’t be arsed mumming either. I was done. IKEA had drained me of any parenting energy I had left in me.

So we plonked the boys in front of the rabbit, about the time they would normally be in bed, with a bowl of ice cream (they thought it was Christmas), and retreated to the study.

Date night at home

We dragged the spare mattress into the room and tossed some pillows on it. Within minutes we had created a comfy telly haven. I dimmed the lights and my husband found the perfect ‘us’ movie. One that we both found hysterical, but wasn’t too girly/romantic or blokey/action-y. If you’re wondering, it was Game Night and I highly recommend it.

Then we also indulged in ice cream in front of the telly. I snuggled into my man and he put his arm around me. We were ‘us’ again.

As it got later and later, it felt more indulgent to be watching our telly.

The kids were STILL awake. We were still ignoring our parenting responsibilities, but it felt like for once we were prioritising our relationship and also, ourselves. Doing what we wanted for a change.

Eventually, it worked. Our little loves fell asleep on the couch and after a quick transfer to their beds, we returned to the study/pillow haven to watch the END of our movie. Without interruption!

It. Was. Awesome.

That night, we didn’t have to share our bed with a little snoring body, either.

So next time you need a bit of ‘us’ time and can’t effort a babysitter, take a note out of my bad mum book. The kids won’t die if you take a night off from parenting. And if you do, it might just be the best thing for your connection with your big love. 

Anne Kitzman/Shutterstock

You’ve decided you’re done with the snow shovel and are ready to invest in a snow blower. Electric snow blowers are a good option since they are eco-friendly, easy-to-operate and quieter than gas-powered models.

Here are some things to know before investing in an electric snow blower.

Before you read on, check out these 15 things you need to know about buying a snow blower.

Snow Depth

Electric snow blowers are a good option when you need to clear snow no more than a foot deep. Since electric models are lightweight, they are good for cleaning off both walkways and driveways, along with decks and patios where many gas-powered models won’t fit. Electric snow blowers come in various sizes and are able to accommodate most snowfalls.

You’ll want these 14 incredible snow removal tools this winter.

Corded vs Battery Models

Corded snow blowers can throw up to 700 pounds of snow per minute, which is plenty of power for most homeowners. While a corded snow blower is a good choice, just remember you will need a cold weather extension cord and outlet. So depending on the space you need to clear, you may be limited by cord length.

There are a small, but growing number of battery-powered electric snow blowers on the market, however, according to Consumer Reports, many lack the power to clear heavy snow. Battery-powered models may be a good choice if you have a very small space to clear since you’ll be trading performance for convenience. Battery models start instantly and are best suited for light snow in space where you’d usually just reach for a broom or shovel.

Electric Snow Blower Maintenance

Since electric snow blowers have no liquids that will need to be changed or small parts that need to be cleaned, they are relatively maintenance-free. Just store the snow blower in a dry place to keep it running properly. You’ll also want to remember to keep your extension cord untangled and hung up when not in use and check regularly for cracks and other damage.

Learn how to change the oil in your gas-powered snow blower.

Potential Issues

If you live in an area where you get a lot of snow, or heavy, wet snow, an electric snow blower may not be your best choice. Most electric snow blowers can’t handle as much snow as gas-powered models, so you may have to go out and use the electric model more often to keep the path clear.

In addition, the length of the cord can limit your snow blower’s reach. Plus, the cord can become tangled in the machinery.

These 10 great ice removal hacks will get you through the winter.

Take the stress out of weeknight dinner prep and cleanup with this super simple, sweet and sour Sheet Pan Balsamic Chicken with Vegetables.

Getting dinner on the table every single night for a family of five is tough. It makes it even tougher when you have 5 distinct food critics that you have to appease every night. Add in the extra parameter of wanting a healthy meal and you have a near impossible task.

I totally understand the appeal of sheet pan dinners. Throw everything you need for one meal on a sheet pan to cook in the oven. And clean up?! This the BEST part of sheet pan dinners. ONE PAN TO CLEAN UP.

Oh yeah, this momma loves this concept.

This recipe for Sheet Pan Balsamic Chicken with Vegetables is oh so simple. You do have to marinate the chicken thighs first, but that extra step is definitely worth it.

You can easily whip up the marinade in the morning, it takes only a few minutes. Pour the marinade and chicken in a resealable bag and place in the refrigerator before you leave the house for work, carpool or all the other crazy things you have planned for the day.

The marinade is a combination of balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, stone ground mustard and garlic. You reserve part of the marinade for the veggies later, but most of it goes for marinating the chicken thighs.

You only need a minimum of 3 hours, but the longer the chicken sits in the marinade the better the flavor. I tried this recipe with the chicken in this marinade overnight as well as just a few hours.

For a family of four, you can easily use one sheet pan for everything. But since I have five of us and my kids are teenagers with BIG appetites, I doubled the recipe and split it up into two sheet pans.

Even with two sheet pans, this meal was super simple to throw together.

The beauty of balsamic vinegar when you are roasting meat in it in the oven is that everything caramelizes. The sweet and sour effect your chicken and vegetables take on is really incredible. You can use any red balsamic vinegar in this recipe.

There are some terrific infused flavors like orange and strawberry balsamic vinegars that would work really well with these ingredients. So feel free to experiment with your favorite balsamic vinegar.

Garnish with some fresh oregano, or if you prefer rosemary or basil they would pair beautifully with this dish, too. Fresh herbs always liven up a meal.

Family dinners are precious times to bond and share stories. It shouldn’t be stressful. Hopefully this Sheet Pan Balsamic Chicken with Vegetables dinner will help the whole family enjoy these special moments.

Author:

Laura Bashar | Family Spice

Take the stress out of weeknight dinner prep and cleanup with this super simple, sweet and sour Sheet Pan Balsamic Chicken with Vegetables.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup stone ground mustard
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 4 chicken thighs
• 1/2 lb Dutch baby yellow potatoes
• 8 oz Brussels sprouts
• 8 oz whole mushrooms
• 1 red onion, cut into wedges

Directions:

1. In a large bowl whisk together:

• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup stone ground mustard
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Place in a large resealable bag:

Pour 1 cup of the marinade over the chicken, seal bag, and squish chicken around to spread it evenly. Refrigerate 3-8 hours.

Reserve remaining 1/2 cup of marinade for vegetables.

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Place the chicken on a large sheet pan.

Place in a large bowl:

• 8 oz Brussels sprouts
• 8 oz whole mushrooms
• 1 red onion, cut into wedges

Coat vegetables in remaining marinade then spread evenly on baking sheet with chicken.

Roast in the oven until food is caramelized, about 40 minutes. About 20 minutes in, stir up vegetables so they brown evenly.

Prep Time: 10 mins plus 3-8 hour marinade time

A new study by researchers at the Universities of Montana, Valle de México, Boise State, Universidad Veracruzana, Instituto Nacional de Pediatría and Paul-Flechsig-Institute for Brain Research heightens together with German company Analytik Jena concerns over the evolving and relentless Alzheimer's pathology observed in young Metropolitan Mexico City (MMC) urbanites. These findings are published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

If you work in an office, chances are that you check in on social media occasionally during the day. Maybe you have the discipline to ignore notifications until lunchtime. But if you are guilty of a quick scroll between meetings you are far from alone – one survey found 89 percent of office workers use social media during work hours.

But what if you don’t work in an office? What if your job is to care for children? Is it still okay to look at social media? This is a question that nanny agencies in the UK have been grappling with after noticing a rise in the number of parents requesting ‘smartphone clauses’ in contracts.

Is it OK for a babysitter/nanny to look at social media?

Speaking to The Times, Kate Baker, who runs Abbeville Nannies said that parents are concerned that social media or texting could be too much of a distraction. “[Parents are] saying, ‘we don’t want you to be texting your friends or being constantly on your phone while looking after the kids in the background,” she said.

So can we expect to see smartphone rules for nannies in Australia any time soon? It is certainly something some parents would like to see. Heidi Wilson, who has hired a succession of nannies to look after her school-age children says that she would like to see some formal rules in place. “Catching [the nanny] using her phone has become a bit of a bugbear. I’m paying her to look after the kids – I don’t expect her to be Mary Poppins, but I do expect her to focus all her attention on the children,” she says. 

Read more about childcare:

Common sense?

But, many nannies, along with nanny and babysitting agencies are calling for a common sense approach. Annemarie Sansom, director of Night Nannies, says that she would not consider implementing a smartphone ban because it would undermine trust. “We trust in our team to make professional decisions when it comes to ensuring they are providing the highest quality care when they have children in their care and are on the job representing us,” she explains.

“You are trusting your child with a professional, why can we not trust them to use their phone sensibly?”

On top of this, Sansom notes that many of her nannies like to use their phone when they are having a break. “Nannies are entitled to a meal break when the child is napping. Would social media access be banned during that time? Should we include magazines, newspapers, TV and other distractions?”

Sansom also points out that many families rely on text messages or WhatsApp to communicate with their nanny. “Banning a phone would obviously inhibit this communication,” she says.

Smartphone clauses

Rather than putting a formal smartphone ban into place, Sansom suggests that any families feeling particularly strongly about phone use discuss the issue with their nanny upfront.

“Parents need to discuss their own philosophies and expectations with their nanny at the time of interview and if it is something they feel passionate about then it would need to be discussed and included in their contract,” she says.

Child safety is a priority

However, some agencies have started to include smartphone clauses in their contracts. Emma Bowdler, managing director at Australian Nanny Agency says that she has worked closely with families to establish smartphone and social media clauses that ensure they are getting the most from their nanny. “Most businesses have a social media policy so a household employing staff shouldn’t be any different.

“Our families hire career professionals to look after their children and are entitled to the knowledge that this employee is focused solely on their work; not their social media status,” says Bowdler.

“The safety of the children should always be the number one priority.”

When Anne* discovered that her older brother had spirited their elderly mother away, it was the dramatic climax of months of financial elder abuse that ended only with her mother’s death.

Talking about it on the phone from her home, she describes how her brother falsely claimed a carer’s allowance and other benefits before she became aware of the extent of the problem.

“I believe he had forged my mother’s signature and changed her will,” Anne says, explaining how she struggled through the courts and the New South Wales civil and administrative tribunal in the hope of protecting her mother and the mother’s assets.

Anne says that just before her brother took their mother back to her unit, she told Anne she was frightened of him.

“The police declined to intervene, saying it was a civil matter, and did not put an urgent intercept on his car. When I got the NCAT ruling, which determined that my mother still had the capacity to manage her own affairs, he had spent most of her money on gambling and alcohol. He then left her to die of neglect. The doctors told me she had not had her medication in over two weeks and was suffering from malnutrition,” Anne says, her voice breaking.

Susan* was faced with an equally horrifying situation, watching as her brother used their father’s gradual decline as an opportunity to chip away at the family’s farming assets.

“Unfortunately, my father had a business partnership with my brother,” she says. “Gradually I realised that my father was becoming demented and that the money was disappearing. My brother was living the high life, with TVs in every room for the kids, an in-ground pool and flash cars.

“I had power of attorney over my father’s affairs, together with my uncle. We sought legal advice and tried mediation, but my brother was having none of it.” Susan says she believes he was involved with drug trafficking. “I had to make several intervention orders and move away because of the risk of violence to myself because of his links to bikies.

“After my brother was arrested a couple of times, I called the elder abuse helpline and requested guardianship. The public advocate appointed an independent company to manage Dad’s affairs, but it took 12 months of me being at them for them to respond. They were over four and a half hours away in Melbourne. Even during guardianship, my brother managed to get his hands on $40,000 of Dad’s money. He was a sitting target.

“Two years of litigation against my brother cost thousands. Eventually the court decided that he had to pay my father’s legal costs. I got Dad into emergency respite and he now lives in care. But our family has been wrecked by this experience. The financial administrator now has a mortgage on the farm and my brother works on it.”

Although there is insufficient hard data, according to statistics from Senior Rights Service, 5% of Australians will experience some form of financial elder abuse. Women are more likely to be victims of abuse by 250%, while two-thirds of cases are perpetrated by the adult children of the victims.

Whether it takes the form of exercising undue control, withholding or coercing, it is always traumatic and disempowering. What makes it so distressing is that it is generally perpetrated by those closest to the victim. In many ways, this makes it worse than the other increasingly common risk of being scammed by a total stranger thousands of miles away – impersonating a telco or computer technician, or via a dating site for seniors.

More common than physical harm, financial elder abuse is one of the uglier consequences of rapidly shifting demographics. Estate lawyer Donal Griffin from Legacy Law says he has seen an increase in cases that reflect societal disruption, as well as a rise in cases challenging wills.

“Baby boomers are the first generation who commonly remarried, often starting new families. This can lead to disputes over estates, prompting financial abuse,” Griffin says. “When a parent keeps changing their mind or moves their investments and it infuriates the beneficiaries, you have to ask yourself if there has been undue pressure or influence. Sometimes revenge can be brutal. I see more and more cases where a spouse has put their husband or wife into miserable care to reduce costs and save money, and the motives are unclear but very distressing for the family.”

To call it inheritance entitlement syndrome legitimises the behaviour. Better to call it theft

Darryl Browne

Elder abuse campaigners Vicki Blackman and Maria Berry believe the system is letting people down. “Politicians are spending all this money on awareness campaigns, but they mostly just reach honest people which solves nothing. We need laws to change,” says Blackman.

Berry agrees: “It feels like this is a hidden epidemic, like domestic violence. One bit of advice I do give is to do an advanced care plan. And seek the help of a succession planner if you think there is going to be a dispute, and go to mediation or guardianship sooner.”

As parents live longer, children have to wait longer to benefit from any proceeds of the family estate they may be counting on to pay off a mortgage or take extended leave from work, leading to so-called inheritance impatience – a trait that can often prompt fraudulent appropriation. It often begins mildly, with the occasional misuse of a person’s pin number, before escalating into fraud.

One family who would only speak to the Guardian anonymously reported that their elderly mother, who lived alone on the NSW north coast, woke one day from a nap to find a distant long-lost relative by her bedside. While gaining her trust and affection, he prevented her children from speaking to her on the phone.

The tight-knit family became alarmed. Taking leave from work in Sydney, they set up a 24-hour roster to sit by her bedside, maintaining a constant vigil. At times this meant sitting across her bed from the man and duking it out in an unnerving, sleepless battle of wills. Their mother had drawn up a power of attorney, but was still sufficiently independent and lucid not to need anyone to act on her behalf. Now she hinted at changing her will. It took weeks for her sons to wear their cousin down. Eventually, sensing defeat, he disappeared as mysteriously as he had appeared.

The motives are complex. They include the baser, more venal aspect of human nature; the pressure of expectations, aspiration and gratification in a materialistic society; simple opportunism; and the increasingly digital, depersonalised world we live in. Governments, legal institutions, social services and banks are all grappling with the problem, with varying degrees of effectiveness.

Several nursing home managers who spoke to the Guardian confirmed that they see cases of children complaining about facilities as “a pretext to withdraw their parents from care to save money that they can then access”.

One social worker working with the NSW Public Guardian says he frequently observes instances of financial abuse “where the victim is either fully or partially aware of what is happening but decides it’s a trade-off for being able to stay in their home. We are powerless to interfere.”

Darryl Browne, the chair of the NSW Law Society’s working group on elder abuse, believes terminology matters: “To call it inheritance entitlement syndrome legitimises the behaviour. Better to call it theft.”

An accredited specialist in wills and estates, Browne believes an extension of the forfeiture rule would create an effective disincentive. “The rule says that if I kill someone, I can’t inherit from their estate. If we extend that to financial elder abuse, and we publicise it, I believe it would have a deterrent effect. Currently the rule applies in eight jurisdictions in the US.

Older Australians need to learn how best to protect themselves, even if they have no cognitive impairment

Anna Bligh

“Another reform I believe we need is a public advocate. NSW is currently the only jurisdiction in Australia without one. If well-resourced and adequately embodied, it would be a useful way of reporting and investigating concerns in a way that was proactive rather than the reactive role of public guardianship.”

In South Australia, the new government has recently passed legislation, which is due to come into force in 2019, establishing an adult safeguarding unit. It is the first of its kind, created in direct response to issues identified as a result of the exposé on the state-government-run Oakden care facility. The South Australian minister for health and wellbeing, Stephen Wade, says the unit will “make it easier for the community to report suspected or actual cases of abuse or neglect of vulnerable adults and will be empowered to investigate issues”.

Currently, a petition by the Australian Banking Association is asking all states and territories to create a set of financial elder abuse safeguards that standardise powers-of-attorney legislation, which currently vary from state to state, as well as establish a national register for powers of attorney and set up a hotline for customers and bank staff to report suspected cases.

The ABA chief executive, Anna Bligh, says by the end of this year, the association will have revised guidelines about how to prevent financial abuse in place. “The challenges facing the sector on this issue are immense,” she says.

The 2016 guidelines, prepared with the financial ombudsman service, recognise that women are predominantly affected and recommend that banks need more specialised employees.

“Bank staff are at the frontline of the issue,” Bligh says. “Customer transactions are private and sensitive matters. We have done a lot of training to help staff identify red flags. At the same time, older Australians need to learn how best to protect themselves, even if they have no cognitive impairment. We suggest putting limits on transactions and requiring more than one co-signatory on any major withdrawal or transfer.”

The Commonwealth Bank recently launched the Safe and Savvy guide, intended to inform its senior clients (identified, soberingly, as anyone over 50) about what to be aware of and how to protect themselves. The bank has printed 50,000 copies of the guide to date and it is being translated into other languages.

The CBA’s customer advocate, Brendan French, put the information together following six months of consultation with ethicists and the aged care sector.

“One of the things that concerns me most from our research is that people with inclusion challenges are more readily [the] prey to this kind of abuse,” French says. “So if you live remotely or have a disability or limited financial literacy, that makes you more vulnerable. We need to identify the indicators, look at social cohesion and work closely with multicultural communities to create a safe space where people can talk to a trusted adviser in the bank without a sense of shame.”

Other recommendations include eliciting the support of personal doctors and accountants, keeping detailed written records and regularly reviewing any power-of-attorney arrangements. Safe and Savvy also offers tips such as temporarily locking credit cards, blocking ATM cash advances and setting a spending cap – all of which requires awareness and vigilance. But with mental health issues and gradual or sudden cognitive decline in the mix, things become infinitely more complicated.

The news is not all grim. One technology that could assist banking and legal representatives in providing up-to-date information on the validity of powers of attorney and financial transactions is blockchain. To date, the decentralised digital ledger has been primarily used by cryptocurrencies, but it has other applications and potential that could make it a lot harder to take advantage of vulnerable individuals. Secure, verifiable data may be the best protection we have against the darker side of human nature.

* Names have been changed

If you, or somebody you know needs help with advocacy regarding an aged care issue, you can contact the Older Person’s Advocacy Network (OPAN) on 1800 700 600 for free, independent advice.

J’avais encore un tee-shirt de Capucine trop petit mais que j’aimais beaucoup. Alors j’ai voulu le recycler. J’avais envie de lui faire une écharpe de portage.

C’est très très facile. Vous prenez le tee shirt. Vous découpez en dessous des manches. Vous faites un ourlet et c’est tout!

Quand elle a mis son bébé dedans, elle m’a dit : « attends Maman, je vais le faire téter mon sein ».

Pour voir l’autre version du recyclage de tee shirt c’est par ici!

Belle soirée