In my work, I often hear families say, “Mom’s just being stubborn—she refuses to move.” But resistance to senior living isn’t stubbornness—it’s cultural. For more than a century, America has shifted from intergenerational households to independent living, replacing connection with privacy and shared purpose with self-reliance. That shift left many older adults believing that accepting help means losing dignity. In my upcoming seven-minute, I’ll explore this cultural Knowledge Gap—how we went from aging together to aging alone, and why that history still shapes the fear of senior living today. Introduce me to the family that says their parent will “never move.” What they really want is to understand what’s behind that resistance so they can respond with empathy instead of frustration. Ask them, “When did independence start feeling like isolation?”