Caregiving can be a fulltime job. For members of the Sandwich Generation, it can be more than a fulltime job.
The average adult who cares for both children and aging relatives reports providing 28 hours of weekly care to the kids and another 22 hours tending to senior family members, a new survey finds. That’s 50 hours a week: a 9-to-5 job and then some.
A new Wealth Watch survey, released this month by the insurance giant New York Life, spotlights the costs of caregiving, in time and money, to midlife Americans who minister both to children and elders.
Roughly half of “sandwiched” adults said they were unable to cover essential expenses, such as rent, groceries or medical care, because of steep caregiving costs at some point in the past year. Nearly half said they had taken on credit-card debt, with an average balance of nearly $13,000.
Millennials and men are joining the ‘Sandwich Generation.’
A growing share of the Sandwich Generation are millennials, adults born between 1981 and 1996. They are struggling with “a confluence of events that is hitting them, economically, pretty hard,” said Suzanne Schmitt, head of financial wellness at New York Life.
Inflation recently hit a 40-year high. Student loan payments resumed this fall after a lengthy pause. Costs of childcare and elder care are rising.
While sandwiched caregivers struggle to manage their finances, they also navigate an array of daily tasks, from bathing parents to shuttling children to and from school.
Some midlife Americans take on caregiver roles gradually, as they embark on parenthood and respond to the needs of their own aging parents. For others, the transition can be sudden and unexpected.
At 28, Sadé Dozan had an infant daughter, a fulltime job and a mother who planned to help raise the child. Then, her mother had a heart attack.
“One day, she was fine and actively watching my daughter and really a big part of our childcare operation,” Dozan said. “And the next day, my mother was in a coma.”
Dozan joined the Sandwich Generation. Now 34, she cares for her daughter, her mother and her father, who has battled cancer.
Her routine involves “everything from weekly grocery runs to medication pickups to answering emails while I’m on hold with Medicare,” she said.
Dozan balances caregiver duties with her job as chief of development and operations at Caring Across Generations, a nonprofit that works with other caregivers.
“Oftentimes, I’ll be in the car with my mom or my dad and driving to an appointment and in a strategy meeting with my job at the same time,” she said
What is the Sandwich Generation, and how large is it?
Roughly one-quarter of American adults belong to the Sandwich Generation, according to Pew Research.
By Pew’s definition, the generation includes anyone sandwiched between a parent 65 or older and a child who receives at least their financial support. Others define the generation more narrowly as adults, traditionally female, who are actively caring for parents and children at the same time.
