How do you deal with having to parent your parent? My dad has vascular dementia and alzheimers. He's still with it enough to know what's going on but declined enough that he should not do certain things like travel by himself. I've tried to tell him he shouldn't but he wont listen. He's been lost multiple times in the neighborhood I cant imagine what would happen to him in an airport. I have legal authority to make his decisions but that doesn't make it any easier. Other than making up some elaborate lie, I'm forced to be the buzz killing daughter turned parent and it's getting increasingly harder.
Dementia is so complex. A friend of mine, his wife had dementia and was living at home. Some way, some how, she was able to fly overseas by herself couple times a year on planned trips to visit friends. It was a mystery how she was able to do that with no problem at all. Yet, when she was back at home, she would get lost and couldn't find her way.
"Therapeutic fibs" are good to have in your back pocket. Keep it simple. With airline issues now a days, those fibs are reality.
I put a Medical ID Bracelet on my husband because I was aware of how many times my girlfriend's husband went missing. Had my husband refused the bracelet, we would probably have visited a tattoo shop. Another idea is to put an air tag on his belt loops or in his pocket. I call myself my husband's "helicopter mom." I survived three teenagers, but I'm not sure how it will end up if I have to parent my husband.