Meena Malhorta
What is the sandwich generation? Meena Malhotra talks on her experience of being a carer in this key stage of life, known as the sandwich generation, a generation of people, typica...
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Who are you an what is your background?
My name's Nina Malhotra. I work for Y as head of Creative Partnerships. I've been working in the working carer space for the past three years, and I'm a carer and a parent, and I love this space because I find it really meaningful and life changing and learning from people. I love walking my dog. I love watching Netflix, and I love cooking.
Was there a moment when you first realized you were becoming a carer for a family member?
So my first experience of becoming a carer was really when I became a parent, which was an absolutely joyful experience and something that anybody who becomes a parent in whichever way is just, it's lovely for the vast majority. Becoming a carer for an adult was a little bit later down the line when a family member became progressively unwell and started to have falls, which would happen at all sorts of times of the day. And it became quite, I guess, challenging to manage childcare and adult care and work at the same time.
When you first stepped into this role, what were some of the biggest emotions you felt?
The biggest fear was of not knowing of is that person going to be okay? Is everything going to be okay? Can we just get through this part? Make sure that they're safe, they're okay, they're going to get better. And I guess you don't really think about yourself. I definitely didn't think about myself or anything really. It was just, let's get this situation sorted out, get them back on track, do the best we can. I guess it's a bit of a scrambling sort of situation. No one really knows when something's going to happen. From an adult's perspective, anything in life could happen at any age. That could be life changing where you need a carer for a short amount of time or a long amount of time. We just don't know. So I guess we don't talk about these things and we don't prepare. So if there was anything I would say to anybody out there is how, start having the conversations and think about what would you do in a situation where you need extra help.