When 60-year-olds take care of 92-year-old parents and 16-year-old kids, it's a worry sandwich.
Middle-aged women are less likely to be happy.
The bleak scenario doesn't surprise Deb Rubenstein, a social worker who counsels "sandwich generation" women, those who have children at home and aging parents, at IONA Senior Services, a social-service agency in Washington, D.C.
"I've had women burst into tears in my office. They say 'Not only is my father in the hospital, and they're calling me at work saying, "Figure out where he's going next because he's not going home," but the school's calling to say my learning-disabled child has developed another problem.' "
Typically, when emergencies with aging parents hit, "these women already have their plates 110% full," she says. Women do about 70% of the caregiving for elderly relatives with chronic illness, national studies have shown.
Middle-aged women are racked by worries about aging parents and relatives and other family members and are less happy than the average American reveals a recent poll commissioned by the New York Academy of Medicine and the National Association of Social Workers.
What Women Worry About
• Concerns about rising health care costs: 70%
• Concerns about an aging parents care or well-being: 65%
• Worry about not having enough time to help, support a family member: 59%
• Difficulty managing stress: 55%
• Fears about terrorist attacks or war: 44%