The Sandwich Generation, Part Two

I was thinking of nontraditional students today (again!)

Photo by Ed Yourdon on Flickr.

Sometimes nontraditional students must be responsible for so much - school, children, and even parents.

Is your parent ill, or needing your help? Do you have children too? An important thing to now is that you are not alone.

This posting is also about The Sandwich Generation - - that's sometimes Baby Boomers, who are just the age to be caregivers for parents, and also have children themselves.

This can make for a lot of stress.

Here is the original article (just click on the yellow link to go there).
The Sandwich Generation

There are some helpful links here, and some sites and advice that can help with the stress and difficulties of being part of this Sandwich Generation.

I know that part of dealing with stress is the attitude you have about it. A hopeless attitude can sometimes only make things worse. (Something you DON'T need at all.)

Being in a support group definitely can help with this, because there are ways of making what seems impossible easier to manage.

After all, there are only so many hours in a day. Nobody expects anyone to be super-human. But guilt and lack of energy, plus depression are real issues that can happen when someone has to deal with a lot of family issues.

I know I felt overwhelmed in the past sometimes when I was taking care of my mother. And when my daughter was  teenager. But I know many people deal with those same feelings every day. Somehow, it helped to know that I was not alone, and that there were places and people online and offline that could help.

I hope these tips from the article can help some nontraditional students today.

Do you also have some tips for people who have a lot to cope with at home or with their family? List your tips as a comment. I'd appreciate that, and so would other nontraditional students.

And my heart goes out to you older students, who often have tough issues to deal with.

Betsyanne
Former Nontraditional Student at WKU
(Education, English and Allied Arts)

And here is my other (latest) article here:
College now and then: ten differences I noticed as a nontraditional student.
 
Here are my other Nontrad links: 
The Nontrad site and blog
Join Nontrads on Facebook
Nontrads on Yahoo (a discussion group)
Nontrads on Twitter

Nontraditional students - are you stuck in a sandwich?

Some time ago, I wrote here about the Sandwich Generation.

This term describes some adults who not only have kids, but also are taking care of aging parents.

Some nontraditional students going back to school after a break are now caregivers for their parents.

So what can this mean? It all depends. It depends how parents have planned for being ill or needing care. And it depends how brothers or sisters plan to help.

Some nontraditional students are stuck between the proverbial rock and the hard place.

How can a nontraditional student go back to school and spend time on studies, when Mom or Dad needs him or her? This can be a really hard question.

Does Mom or Dad want to stay at home? How can they pay for help?

I can see how taking care of Mom or Dad could make school or even a full-time job impossible.

Check out this posting about the Sandwich Generation. It has lots of great links to help with taking care of elderly parents.

And leave a comment. Are you in this situation? How are you coping with it? Are you going to have to make some hard decisions?

I would love to hear your story.

Betsyanne
Current (art) and former (education) nontraditional student.

And here are some more Nontrad links:

The Nontrad site and blog

Join Nontrads on Facebook

Nontrads on Yahoo, and

Nontrads on Twitter