Justine Lusung

Middle Adulthood – Sandwich Generation

In middle adulthood, there is a term called “sandwich generation” that describes the

caregiver role of the adult. In sandwich generation, middle-aged adults have the need to take care

of both their aging parents and their own kids. However, this can be really tough because they

have to balance helping their parents, who might be getting older and need extra support, with

taking care of their children, who are still growing up. Because of this, the adult is given added

stressors that make it difficult for them to focus on themselves.

A stressor that the adult might face in sandwich generation might be financial. For

example, the parent could have health problems that require maintenance medication or therapies

such as chemotherapy. Both of these interventions would require the adult to save some money

and make sure to have enough set aside so that the needs of the parent are satisfied. However, if

we add children to the equation, financial stress will increase because the adult will also worry

for the child’s education costs and necessities such as clothes or food.

Another stressor that could affect the middle-aged adult is managing enough time to take

care of both the children, parents, and work. Adults have a lot of responsibilities that they need to

juggle at this life stage. Most are probably employed and might not have enough time to give to

their children. Because of sandwich generation, the little time that they do have is stretched thin

which will affect all parties negatively. Most importantly, their relationships such as parent-

children (adult to child and parent to adult).

Lastly, it is important for the middle-aged adult to recognize if they are ready to care for

their parents and children at the same time. Moreover, the adult should know their limits and also

take care of themselves so as to not add any further stress.