The Sandwich Generation is real-and doesn’t include bacon, Part One

The Sandwich Generation is the term used to describe people who are caring for young children, as well as an older parent. This is part one to an ongoing series where we’ll document things that might help others. The Sandwich Generation is an interesting period that has pros and cons. Pro: Your children get to experience time with their grandparents. Con: Depending on your family or their medical condition this could also be a con. There are a couple other downsides that occur to those who are dealing with this. We’re knee deep in dealing with the Sandwich Generation and have a couple helpful things you’ll want to consider.  Every situation is different. Some of these tips will translate to anyone, while others are more specific and will only resonate with those who in a medical Sandwich Generation situation. (say that five times fast)

Copy that

Make copies of your older parent’s documents. The credit cards, driver’s license, insurance cards-anything that they would keep in their wallet or purse make a copy of them. We save all of the important numbers, such as Medicare, birth date, social and various insurance numbers on a saved document on our computer, in our KeyPass and hard copies that we keep in the filing cabinet.

About 10 years ago my father gave me a document entitled “Dad RIP”. At the time I thought it was kind of morbid, but saved it to our computer. In reality that document has only assisted us once during the past year’s worth of doctors and hospital visits.

What have been much more beneficial are the stacks of go-to documents that were needed. Our mandatory stack of copied documents is the POA, Last Will and Testament and any current medical notes. That last one is a quick debrief of his operations and procedures in the recent history, as well as a note from a doctor that he’s seen very recently.

Whenever your older parent has to go to a doctor they might need one, or all of those documents. They will also need a copy of the medications that they’re currently taking. Of course, medications might change, so just date it on the first page so that the new doctor knows what’s currently in their system.

Speaking of Paperwork

Where is their paperwork? It will help you if you find their bills, previous year’s taxes, contact list (probably on one of those old school Rolodexs’) and secure it ASAP. In addition to helping you in the process it will safeguard their identity, because people will notice that they’re not home quickly.

“The word is out”, one of our neighbor’s said about our parent’s extended visit to the hospital. I pressed them what they meant by this and they said that people were scouting the house. They were yard people looking for jobs, realtors curious as to if we wanted to sell it or home improvement folks needing homes to fix up. There might have also been a robber in the mix-who knows?

The first thing that we did when it became apparent that this hospital stay might be long was to remove the personal records. This included all of his taxes, bank records or personal documents that they would need to get through any facilities that they’ll be visiting. Sure we also picked up some of the small, sentimental items, but the bank records were just as-if not more important in order to secure his identification.

You might also want to freeze their credit. Bonus: if your parent is 65 or older you can freeze their credit for free, otherwise it’ll cost $10 a credit bureau.