A Senior Moment?

The ties that bind

I love my parents, I really do. I mean they both have their foibles, but who doesn't? They love me almost unconditionally; they spoil their grandchildren; and when it comes to independence, marbles being intact, and hygiene - they're still scoring quite highly.

One of them is addicted to exercise and the other is equally addicted to various less healthy vices, but you couldn't tell which was which by looking at them (is there a lesson there somewhere?).

But great or not, they're getting older. At some point in the next decade they will be less independent. And that will make life a lot more complicated for their four wonderful but slightly self-centred boys. Very unfair of them not to live closer to us, I say...

Time waits for no man

There is actually a serious point to this, other than checking if they read my blog. Eldercare is one of those huge and strangely taboo subjects. People live longer these days and yes, that's partly thanks to the NHS.

Family plays a massive and economically essential role in providing support. For large employers the demographics are truly frightening: there will be around 9 million working carers by 2037.

These days our biggest companies do some wonderful things for working mothers. Why is it (with a few notable exceptions - stand up the likes of Bank of America, P&G and IBM) that they are so useless at embracing the needs of working carers?

Not a necessary requirement?

The usual argument (which I have to admit to making myself - sorry) is that they don't need to. Most of us don't realise we're working carers. As carers of elderly relatives we perhaps don't talk about it; we don't stand around the coffee machine talking about our amazing children, there's no tell-tale bump, or sports day to show off about.

There's just a gradual pressure to try and keep everything roughly together.

Maybe I've got this all wrong... It might just be that working carers are often about ten years older than your typical working parent. That means they are also ten years more senior. Maybe, just maybe, the reason they make so little noise is because they are important senior people.

Adding value to companies

Important senior people add value. They know how systems work. If flexibility is possible, then they are the ones who can grab it.

So is the reason working carers need less support simply because these days it really is possibly to work flexibly and combine work and family successfully?

I'm not really convincing myself here. But even if there's an element of truth, well that is progress of a sort. And to my dear parents,  just in case they're reading - sorry!

Ben Black