Sandwich Generation Looking After Both Sides
The challenge of nurturing of old parents can be demanding. This is one of the most difficult issues that several people are encountering nowadays. Your father is aged, mother is mostly ill, and you live fifteen minutes drive away from them. With all this, you even have to take care of your kids. Problems like these are becoming common as parents have to take care of both sides. In the past, attenders performed this work and as a matter of fact, there were similar Baltimore caregiver jobs or Baltimore cna jobs out there. But now, people squeezed in this situation and who are taking care of both sides is called the “Sandwich generation.”
Gone are those times when two or three families used to live in the same town or just one house. Situations have changed now. Members of one family are scattered throughout the country, with long-distance calls and emails remaining to be the only few sources to tie them together. Aging parents are less likely to seek assistance in the present times, with the sense of becoming a burden to their children. They think that their kids are struggling hard and should do something themselves to not become a burden. To avoid this, sandwich generation attenders can take care of a few points to keep in touch and build a continuous network:
• Conduct a meeting each week to keep track of all the basic works to be done before the next meeting. You can fix a couple of mutual expectations and list all the ways that can be used to achieve the target. If you own a family support, care-giving does not belong to one individual. Having a family meeting will further give more space to each member to participate and share their thoughts.
• Assign roles to each family member. You can hand over some roles to your kids for e.g. routine checkups or cleaning the garden, and perform others yourself. This not just distributes your burden, but even helps establish communication. It will even reduce the generation gap and will push the rest of the family members to have a chat.
• Provide your parents with entertainment facilities such as newspapers and magazines to make them vigilant with upcoming happenings. If they have an interest in a particular area, make sure that you subscribe to their interest-related magazines. Buy them tickets for concerts or cultural shows. Give them movies occasionally, with a type that interests them. Bring them to churches and shopping malls where they feel amused and relieved.
• Whenever you visit your parents place, have a 360 degree look and see if anything needs to be repaired or fixed. Make a note of every things so that you mend it yourself or manage a way to fix it by calling for a expert help.
Sandwich Generation Month
Sandwich Generation Month is a 30 day duration that is commemorated every year to reward people for the commitment, endurance and commitment that they have for their parents as well as children. It is held each July and with support from various organizations and NGOs, creates awareness and provides support for the sandwich generation family.