Workers who tend to aging parents and have children at home, the so-called sandwich generation, report even higher levels of emotional and financial strain, according to AARP.Įstimates of the economic cost of caregiving in the US range from $264 billion to as much as $600 billion. More than half the US labor force has caregiving responsibilities outside of work, and some 37 million Americans can spend an average of nearly four hours a day looking after an elder, according to US government data. Kessler’s bind has become increasingly common. “I got there, and it was like she was not the same person. I didn’t know what to do.”Ĭoncerned about leaving her then 91-year-old mother on her own, Kessler decided to bring her back with her to Maryland, which she said was “the worst mistake I ever made.” Being away from home exacerbated her mother’s anxiety and added a demanding burden to daily life for Kessler, a 60-year-old senior director at hotel chain Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. and was just hysterical, frightened that someone was in the house,” Kessler, who was staying at a hotel nearby, said. (Bloomberg) - Ellen Kessler was visiting her mother in Florida last year when things took a bad turn.
