Baby Boom
We live in this "baby boom" generation. As this generation progresses towards middle ages their parents enter old age, both in respective stages of adulthood. The respective parents are often in need of care and the children, sufficiently adult now take charge. Brody (1995) finds out that in 90% of the cases the children in the family reach out to their parents with such help. In case of the family often women- the wife or the daughter or for that matter the daughter in law assume the role of the caregiver. The men are nowadays fast entering this arena of caregiving. The present caregiving generation thus is often caught between the dual pressures of raising their own children and at the same time taking care of their parents. No wonder they are referred as the “sandwiched generation” (Ward and Spitze 1998).
The adult child caregiver is mostly cramped for time. Understand this. He/she is often working or employed full time in spite of which he/she has to make time for his/her parent who needs to be accompanied to the doctor, to the grocery store, or needs substantial help when her home requires repairs or she visits the laundry. Simultaneously he/she has to take his/her wards to school, attend parents teachers meets in schools, attend the extra curricular activities the kids participate in, come back home in time to help out with the kids’ home work and give them time. Whatever little time there could be possibly left after this, he/she devotes to personal affairs or to his/her spouse.
The stress experienced is tremendous often resulting in not so desirable outcomes like, depression, strain in the marital relationship, angst, despair, petulance, insomnia, and exhaustion. When in desperation often one shifts in with his/her parents who might be ill, to take care these problems are often aggravated. The entire family’s way pf life is jolted.
The caregivers opine that time spent with their elders is mostly from time they used to spend with their family or also time allotted for personal leisure hours. With such time spent otherwise the children of such adult children often find their parents not being able to spare sufficient time for them. When considering caregiving in terms of balancing work and life, Rachor (1998) reported that The Gallup Organization conducted a research, which yielded results, showing that employees with caregiving responsibilities were frequently attacked by health problems. Often the stress levels at work were too high for them, thesatisfaction which resulted from work was much lower for them as they frequently complained of less and less time being allotted to them for work.
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