Why is “Caregiving Stress” generally associated with the care of elderly and not with the care of children?

The mindset during a caregiver’s journey is rather strange. While most of us are happy taking care of our dependent children but when it comes to taking care of our elderly parents, we tend to portray as if we have been tasked with the responsibility of saving the world.

Senior citizens who get into the “Oldest Old” stage of life, the chances are that many of them would start behaving like children.

As people grow older the commonalities in personality traits like becoming adamant, throwing tantrums etc etc. starts to become more common between a child and a dependent elderly.
The larger point of debate is, do we have double standards when it comes to taking care of our children versus our parents?

Typically when a child is born, most parents are happy to spend sleepless nights caring for the young, but somehow when it comes to our elders, we start talking about caregiving stress and project our caregiving responsibilities as if we are doing a great service for mankind.

We do not think twice to change a child’s diaper but when it comes to changing the same for our parents, we prefer a professional caregiver to do it for us.

In my opinion, there is no right or wrong in this gradual change of caregiving mindset, I guess that’s how most of us are programmed to behave.

Since India is posed to becoming an international juggernaut, there is a strong possibility that many children will not have the time to take care of their elderly parents. 

In situations like this, India would require a huge force of professional and experienced caregivers who can step in as qualified, trained and empathetic support systems.

I genuinely feel that, if as a country we do not lay a strong foundation for Aged Care as of yesterday, then the chances are that, not only will our own future be at stake but it could be in the hands of those who won’t even know the ABCD of caregiving.

Pankaj Mehrotra