Article June 16, 2008 Issue

NOT JUST CAREGIVING—JOY-GIVING

BY THOMAS RICHARD MITCHINSON

CAREGIVING IS SOMETHING MOST OF US DO at one time or another. Parents put caring for their children above all else. Grandparents and teenagers often step in, sharing in the care of children who need love and nurturing. Doctors, therapists, school administrators, and teachers spend their days seeing to others' needs. It's pretty safe to say that at one time or another most everyone is a caregiver, and oftentimes a very willing one.

Yet news reports often stress the pressures involved, and not the joys that can come, with unselfish giving. Today's "sandwich generation"—those caring for both their own children and their parents—know first hand the enormous amount of time and energy sometimes needed.