More adults are balancing children, parents and work

More than half of Americans in their 40s are in the sandwich generation, according to an August Pew Research Center report cited by the New York Post. The term describes adults age 30 to 60 who have children and elderly parents and are often caring for both while trying to advance during prime working years. The report says 45% of people in their 50s are in the same position. Overall, 25% of US adults are in the middle of the sandwich, up two points from the last time Pew did the survey in 2021. The work can reach into paid employment. Care.com found in its July survey that some respondents logged an 24 hours of child and parent care per week. About 80% in the sandwich generation reported feeling overloaded by the decisions they regularly face, and another 80% said they needed a break but had no idea how to pull it off. Around 66% said they had hidden the extent of their caregiving responsibilities from employers, while 55% said they had declined a promotion to keep up with caregiving instead. Another 66% said they had reigned in career aspirations because of caregiving needs. Care.com also found that about 82% said the costs of providing care strained their families financially, 77% said they often felt severe stress, and 98% said caregiving caused them to miss major life events in the last year. These are survey findings, not measures of all sandwich-generation households.