Teaching our children to feather their nests securely is vital, but it is just as important for those of us finding ourselves caring for elderly parents at the same time we have little ones at home to get help on that angle, as well.

For that other slice of bread on our sandwich ... we are the filling, of course ... a new guide book, "The Parent Care Conversation: Six Strategies for Transforming the Emotional and Financial Future of Your Aging Parents" by Daniel Taylor has recently been published.

The review I've seen indicates that the book gives readable, helpful and practical advice for a wide range of aspects in care of elderly parents.

Taylor applies his system to six conversations that children should have with their aging parents: the big picture conversation pertaining to your parent’s vision of their future: the money conversation where you wish to obtain an overall grasp of your parents’ current and future financial needs: the property conversation which focuses on your parents moveable possessions and how they would want them to be distributed: the house conversation dealing with your parents plans to either stay in their home or move somewhere else: the professional care conversation and the kind of care they would want: the legacy conversation that will get parents thinking about their lives, achievements and the legacy they wish to leave.

Of course, for us, these are not only conversations we will need to have with our parents, they are also ones we should be preparing to have with our children.

If nothing else, we should be taking into account possible realities and preparing as we can so our kids don't find themselves swamped by events our advancing years may cause.

At this point, 25% of American families are caring for elderly parents. That figure can only go up as life spans stretch. How much groundwork have you laid? Does your advance planning take into account the possibility that you may still be kicking at the age of 95? 100?

We all knew when we started the process of adopting later in life exactly how old we'd be when our children reached certain ages, but have our imaginations been good enough to cover all the bases if we go far beyond being 70 when our kids are 18, up to, say, calculating everyone's needs when we're 90 and they're 38, or 110 when they're pushing 60?

Being determined to maintain our good health, keep active and fully participate in our kids' lives is all well and good, but the longer we are around the more likely our kids will, at some point, need to know our answers to those six questions.

Might as well be prepared for that, too.