{"id":10675,"date":"2024-08-03T13:39:10","date_gmt":"2024-08-03T13:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=10675"},"modified":"2024-08-03T14:25:00","modified_gmt":"2024-08-03T14:25:00","slug":"when-elder-care-is-all-in-the-stepfamily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=10675","title":{"rendered":"When Elder Care Is All in the Stepfamily"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Adult children are less likely to assist an aging stepparent, studies show. A growing \u201cstep gap\u201d in senior care worries experts.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

The encounter happened years ago, but Beverly K. Brandt remembers it vividly.<\/p>\n

She was leaving her office at Arizona State University, where she taught design history, to run an errand for her ailing stepfather. He had moved into a retirement community nearby after his wife, Dr. Brandt\u2019s mother, died of cancer.<\/p>\n

As his caregiver, Dr. Brandt spoke with him daily and visited twice a week. She coordinated medical appointments, prescriptions, requests for facility staff \u2014 the endless responsibilities of maintaining a man in his 90s.<\/p>\n

Maybe she looked especially frazzled that day, she said, because a longtime colleague drew her aside with a startling question.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeverly, why are you doing this?\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s not a blood relative. He\u2019s just a stepfather. You don\u2019t have any obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

\u201cI was dumbfounded,\u201d Dr. Brandt, 72, recalled. \u201cI still can\u2019t understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was 5 when her father died. Three years later, she said, her mother married Mark Littler, an accounting executive and a \u201cwonderful\u201d parent.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d come home from a grueling job, change out of his good clothes, then carry me around the living room on his back,\u201d she recalled. Later, he introduced her to the symphony and the theater, funded her graduate education and mentored her as she entered the academic world.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adult children are less likely to assist an aging stepparent, studies show. A growing \u201cstep gap\u201d in senior care worries experts.The encounter happened years ago, but Beverly K. Brandt remembers it vividly.She was leaving her office at Arizona State University, where she taught design history, to run an errand for her ailing stepfather. He had moved into a retirement community nearby after his wife, Dr. Brandt\u2019s mother, died of cancer.As his caregiver, Dr. Brandt spoke with him daily and visited twice a week. She coordinated medical appointments, prescriptions, requests for facility staff \u2014 the endless responsibilities of maintaining a man in his 90s.Maybe she looked especially frazzled that day, she said, because a longtime colleague drew her aside with a startling question.\u201cBeverly, why are you doing this?\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s not a blood relative. He\u2019s just a stepfather. You don\u2019t have any obligations.\u201d\u201cI was dumbfounded,\u201d Dr. Brandt, 72, recalled. \u201cI still can\u2019t understand it.\u201dShe was 5 when her father died. Three years later, she said, her mother married Mark Littler, an accounting executive and a \u201cwonderful\u201d parent.\u201cHe\u2019d come home from a grueling job, change out of his good clothes, then carry me around the living room on his back,\u201d she recalled. Later, he introduced her to the symphony and the theater, funded her graduate education and mentored her as she entered the academic world.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10677,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10675"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10678,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10675\/revisions\/10678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}