Why so many of us are feeling ‘squished’ and what to do about it
For many of us single mums, the ‘juggle’ used to be managing full-time caring parenting with full-time paid employment. Maintaining two full-time roles took energy, time, and emotional resources. Then as our parents get older, caring for ageing parents is thrown into the mix.
We’re being called the Sandwich Generation – women caring for children and ageing parents at the same time.
Figures from the 2022 HILDA survey show reveal that the Sandwich Generation is a disproportionately female experience, with 10.3 per cent of females over 15 providing unpaid care compared with 6.3 per cent of males.
The survey also showed that women, aged between 50 and 69, are the biggest providers of unpaid, ongoing care, with over 12 per cent caring for a person with a disability or an older person.
Many single mums caring for older parents and children describe it as an emotional experience, and can feel they are struggling on all fronts: as a child, as a parent, and as an employee. Caring for ourselves can drop way down the list of priorities, leading to ongoing health issues.
Caring is expensive, too, and something that few of us can manage with ease during this cost of living crisis.
Caring for parents at the same time as children has a particular impact on single mothers already living in poverty. Professor Alan Duncan, the director of the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre wrote in a 2022 report into Poverty and Disadvantage in Australia, that poverty has a greater and more persistent impact on women — particularly if they are carers.
“Raising children and young people or caring for ageing parents becomes dramatically harder with poverty – and the knock-on impacts to the wellbeing of others is increased,” he said.
This podcast can help
The ABC has just launched a fantastic podcast, Squished, in which a panel of experts share their ideas on the big and little things that we can do to ease the burden and make life better for the Sandwich Generation. How can we better care for ourselves when caring for others? What to do when your sibling are nowhere to be found? Should your parents move in with your family? Check out Squished here.
