In: Psychology
Discuss the impact on a family when a middle generation parent is caring for a child and an aging parent.
Family is a social institution comprised of parents, grandparents and children. It gives a feel of security, and is a place where you get love, care and affection. It teaches us to respect and care each other. It is the love or common interest that binds the family members together. Family members will be very close and they depend on one another for care, guidance and support.
Among the family members, it is the grand parents and kids are the ones who require more care and attention. Old-aged people and children depend more on other elder members in the family, for their daily needs. For a child family is the first and foremost social institution to which he/she gets exposed to. So it is the family which moulds the personality of the child. Similarly old age is a period in life where people are weak - physically, mentally and financially. So both these groups require more attention and time. And people belonging to both these categories will have more needs in the areas like health. So it is the responsibility and duty of the middle generation parent to make sure that they meet the requirements of their parents as well as children. When both these categories are given more attention and care, others in the family may get affected because of the lack in time, physical assistance and financial support. At the same time, this might be affecting the middle-generation parent as well, where there are chances like they won’t get adequate time to take care of themselves, and might even deteriorate their health. They will also have to work hard to meet the financial needs of their parents and children.
To conclude, a family run by a middle generation parent who takes care of their parents and children, might have physical and financial impacts.