Many baby boomers aren’t ready for retirement — much less a retirement community. And some in this independent and free-spirited generation are indignant about even discussing the idea of someone so young moving to a community of, well, old people.

“Too busy working to think about the ‘home’ and my mother says she isn’t ready either,” wrote Becky Christner in response to a recent Facebook inquiry about whether baby boomers are ready for the retirement home.

Others were more blunt in their distain of thinking anybody in the 50 to 68 age range would consider living in an independent retirement community.

“Your post is really not even cool,” wrote Joanna Musulman, 55, a local actor and model who wrote she was too busy rock climbing, rafting, mountain biking, hiking, skiing, gardening, making soap, making wine and raising her children.

Perhaps Ginnie Williams, 62, of Spokane, Washington, summed it up.

“We don’t readily accept aging,” Williams wrote. “We’re too busy being active to accept the structure of a retirement home.”

Yet these attitudes aren’t keeping retirement communities from courting the largest generation ever, the boomers born between 1946 and 1964. Even if boomers don’t like to acknowledge it, they will eventually reach “old age” and perhaps will decide having someone else do the cooking, cleaning and driving might be a good idea.

Marketers know boomers will eventually fill the retirement communities, which are moving toward restaurant-style dining, wine bars, spalike bathrooms, larger living areas and closets, pools, yoga rooms, workshops, garden plots and ambience more reminiscent of a resort hotel than the boxy and institutional retirement apartments of the past. Technology upgrades so boomers can work from their retirement homes or so grandparents can communicate online with their grandchildren and friends are more and more common.

Sometimes the terminology throws off boomers, confusing a retirement community with the old notion of a nursing home.

“The biggest trend that I see is that the days of ‘putting mom in a nursing home’ are pretty much nonexistent,” said Beth Swilling, a certified senior care adviser with CarePatrol, who help seniors and their families find appropriate housing for the aging. “We run across this misconception and fear all the time.”

Today most skilled nursing facilities, formally called nursing homes, are mostly for rehabilitation, Swilling said. They aren’t places where people live until they die.

A retirement community is just that — an independent place, usually for people 55 and older, where residents can live without the tasks of home maintenance, lawn care or daily cooking. Some communities offer apartments, while others are more like suburban developments with individual homes or cottages.

Garden Plaza in Post Falls, Idaho, is one of the area’s premier retirement communities, and it is attempting to catch baby boomers’ notice. Often the first exposure boomers have to these kinds of places is when they place their own parents in a smaller home where they keep their independence and active lifestyle, without the hassles of maintaining a larger house and property.

“The building feels like a beautiful vacation lodge with wide-open halls and congregational spaces that have large, comfortable leather, stuffed chairs and couches,” said Swilling, who has toured most retirement communities in the region.

Yet the average age of Garden Plaza residents is the early 80s, with very few baby boomers. Often boomers move into retirement communities only if they have health issues or older spouses.

Debra Rubens, the director of marketing at Fairwood Retirement Village in Spokane, Washington, said baby boomers are more inquisitive than their parents and want to know everything about a community from its finances to its reputation. They also are more demanding in the services and activities they want. They want continuing education courses, travel opportunities and absolute freedom.

Walt and Jodie Kroon and their Pomeranian Cherie moved into Garden Plaza in August. The couple are healthy and active. They recently drove to California to visit family and still put nearly 18,000 miles on their car each year. Walt, a concert organist, plays in the Spokane Symphony when an organist is needed and for three churches each week, including the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Spokane. But the couple are far from boomers. Walt is 82 and Jodie is 81. Their oldest two children are baby boomers — who are not interested in living in a place like Garden Plaza — and the youngest is in her 40s.

Although 100 percent independent, the Kroons made the difficult decision to leave their townhouse on Avondale Lake when their 65-year-old neighbor, an avid runner, had a massive stroke.

Walt Kroon worried that maybe they needed a place that was smaller and safer and where assisted living was right next door if either of them had a health crisis.

Jodie Kroon still isn’t sure if it was the right decision. She moved “kicking and screaming” and often feels guilty — and blessed — that she and Walt are some of the most healthy and active people in the building. Often their neighbors call on them for help getting out of a chair.

The Kroons thought they would stay in their home forever, getting medical services delivered if needed. Many aging people share that sentiment.

Family Home Care, which provides in-home care, reports that 70 percent of people turning 65 will need long-term care. Yet 90 percent of people turning age 65 want to stay in their own home.

“Home is where everyone wants to be,” said Dean Roberson of Family Home Care.

Yet that’s not always possible. And retirement communities want people to know there are lots of options for living and making life easier before health care is needed.

The Kroons said they can’t imagine baby boomers living in their community — no matter how nice the apartments or the services. They are in their early 80s and unsure if it’s a good fit.

“I just couldn’t see them here,” Jodie Kroon said.