Submitted on Thursday July 30th, 2015
Parents are living longer. Children are often dependent for more years than expected. Add to this the ongoing responsibilities to spouse/partner and jobs, and there is little wiggle room for the millions of family caregivers who find themselves in today's "Sandwich Generation."
It's easy to feel guilty and lose sight of the joy in your life when you are pressed on all sides. To support your resilience and make sandwich caregiving more gratifying, dedicate some quality time on a daily or weekly basis to each of your key relationships.
- Ensure parent care is not just a rote set of to-dos. Instead, take stock of what you enjoy about the person or situation. Is there a daily comic you could share for a laugh? Or memories to savor by scrapbooking together or labeling old photos and recalling pastimes?