DEEP DIVE: Taking Care Of Our Parents (And Our Kids)

This month's Deep Dive series is all about family dynamics. Listen to the whole playlist on Spotify.

If you’re part of the “sandwich generation”– taking care of your parents and your children at the same time– you’ve got a lot of company. The demographic trends of starting our own families later, and increasing life expectancies, mean this double-caretaking will become a reality for a lot more of us. And it seems that this responsibility is falling more often on women: two-thirds of people doing the "double caretaking" are female. 

In this episode, we discuss how caring for parents can be particularly fraught, whether you’re giving them daily insulin shots or just trying to make sense of their finances every April. 

We also discuss the importance of prioritizing our own mental and physical health, even (especially) when there seems to be little time to do so. 

Finally, we talk about operating from a place of maximum vulnerability. Realize that you really are doing more than any one person can handle. Get specific about the help you need, and be honest when you’re hitting your limits. 

Here are links to some of the writing on the topic that we discuss in this episode:

• Dorothy A. Miller: The 'sandwich' generation: adult children of the aging
• Jessica Grose for NYT: ‘It’s Pretty Brutal’: The Sandwich Generation Pays a Price
• Katica Roy for Fast Company: I’m a breadwinner mom and this is why helping women in the sandwich generation is good for the U.S. economy
• Michelle Konstantinovsky for One Medical: The Sandwich Generation: Managing Stress While Caring For Others
• Alia E. Dastagir for the Chicago Sun Times: ‘Sandwich generation’ stress: Adults caring for aging parents face stress, frustration

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