ABSTRACT
Stress is an inevitable byproduct of the caregiving task. Caring for others, in its various manifestations, places various forms of emotional, physical, and mental strain on people. It is exhausting to be constantly present for others, taking them in and helping them with their often difficult tasks of healing, growing, and learning. Parents know this instinctively. Raising children strains one’s capacities. Lessons must be taught, values instilled, and emotions steadied during the ongoing transitions that mark a child’s journey to young adulthood. Stress attends the daily ministrations – of food, advice, discipline, choices, and support – that characterize the parenting role. It occurs in key moments of transition or crisis, during which parents must struggle toward the right thing while managing their relationships with and reactions to their children. The caregiver’s task is, in many ways, not so different from parenting. Caregivers are constantly working with people who regress in the service of receiving support or knowledge, of trying new ways of thinking and acting. They are engaged on a daily basis with dependent others. They must act within situations that contain transition or crisis with the possibility of great harm to others.
