What aging parents can do now to help their adult children care for them later

If you are taking care of both young children and aging parents, or if you’re a working parent in addition to your caregiving responsibilities, your busy family-and-work lifestyle makes you a card-carrying member of the “sandwich generation.”

About one-quarter of U.S. adults belong to this group, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in October 2021. The survey shows adults in their 40s are most likely to sandwich between their children and an aging parent (at 54%). Other research shows nearly 70% of sandwich-generation adults work for pay.

The good news is many of these adults also say they are very satisfied with their family life, including almost half of sandwiched adults in their 40s. Still, the stress from older adult care, child care and employment can take its toll on the mental, physical and financial health of many caregivers.

The U.S. is a laggard in supporting caregivers. Child care is expensive. According to the latest care.com survey of 2,000 parents, respondents are spending 24% of household income on child care. Elder care is costly, too. The long-term care support system is something of a patchwork quilt of programs and services.

That said, employers are taking employee-caregiving responsibilities more seriously with their benefit packages. The desire to boost productivity and retain employees is largely drove this motivation in a healthy labor market . A recent study by Harvard Business School professor Joe Fuller argued companies that address employees’ caregiving needs have lower rates of turnover and absenteeism, a return on the benefits investment. Problem is, a company with a menu of caregiving benefits has to employ you for you to reap those rewards.

There is no simple “cure-all” to relieve the stress and strains of caregiving for sandwich-generation adults. The fundamentals of personal finance help, especially creating a household budget and building up savings.

There are two actions older adults can take to help. First, older adults who know they will rely on assistance from their adult children with young kids have a responsibility to share information about their finances, resources and desires well before they need any assistance. The information is invaluable to the future caregiver. The information allows them to plan better.

Second, older adults should take on the time-consuming task of researching local government and nonprofit programs that might prove useful with age. Time is the scarce resource of their adult children with kids.

Chris Farrell is senior economics contributor for “Marketplace” and a commentator for Minnesota Public Radio.