About 47{61184866ff15cdb405c52590996984f5dcc9333127d40f009c80f9c52d0a6265} of adults are a sandwich generation which includes people who are taking care of their children as well as their aging parents. Taking care of your parents and children can be quite tiresome and frustrating which is why a large population face specific challenges and lead a stressful life. Dorothy Miller created the term sandwich generation and their different signs that help you know if you are part of the growing demographic.
The sandwich caregiver is about 40 to 50 years old raise small children and are responsible for an older child financially. People in this generation have full-time jobs and take care of their family, but female caregivers have more roles than men. Taking care of your family and parents financially can affect your mental state since you are under a lot of pressure every day.
People become club sandwich caregivers when they are extending help to grandparents for grandchildren. Taking care of everyone in your family means you have a lot of commitments, and this will take a toll on your performance at work. Many of their caregivers are usually stressed and less productive at work, but companies are ensuring they cover such special demographic of workers.
More companies are offering stress relief at work, workshops for financial planning and health incentives so the sandwich generation caregiver can take care of the health and family without feeling stressed out. Since there is more awareness regarding sandwich generation caregivers you can discuss with their human resource manager or check the benefits booklet for employees in your company to check out different offers. The sandwich generation caregivers can only learn healthy coping skills after getting services from a professional therapist since their stress levels are higher than normal.
Communication is important when you’re feeling overwhelmed with all the responsibilities so recruiting family members to assist you and going for after-school programs helps calm your nerves. There are multiple sandwich generation caregivers you get to meet through local or online support groups plus you need to create time for yourself. You need to master the art of communicating with your elderly parents as well as children since the elderly parent can face different health problems like cognitive disorders, Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Kids are most affected when living with a dual caregiver since all the money is spent on other responsibilities rather than savings. You might be financially stretched to the limit, and you should know when to say no to your kids and elderly and take a few minutes to yourself, so you can plan out your obligation and know what you should prioritize.
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