Fifty-somethings are getting caught between helping younger generations and tending to their own growth. (Shutterstock)Late midlife adults are one of Canada’s largest yet most under-recognized and over-extended resources. They quietly tend to the health and well-being of millions of younger and older people, in person or from a distance. From August 2024 to July 2025, Canada’s late midlife adults — those between the ages of 55 and 64 — collectively worked more than 100 million hours per month in a wide range of occupations like retail, law, engineering and health care. In addition, Statistics Canada estimates they’re contributing 552 million hours per year formally volunteering, such as in crisis centres and schools. Late-to-midlife adults across Canada spent another 1.342 million hours doing unpaid informal volunteering. Across Canada, baby boomers spent 1,219,000 hours of their 1,342,000 informal volunteer work hours directly helping family members like a parent or a sibling. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a good number were adding another 20 caregiving hours to their work week, whether in their own home or in a family member’s. Aging and caregivingBoth of us research population and individual aging. We have watched our own siblings feeling caught between supporting parents and supporting their children, deferring their own health needs in the process. This is no surprise, because about one in five midlife women are caring for a child and more than one-third are providing care for an adult. A typical caregiver has been providing 35 hours of care per week for more than four years. Adding three more hours per week would put them at the tipping point for anger and depression or just giving up. One in five midlife women is caring for a child and more than one-third are providing care for an adult. (Shutterstock) In today’s economy, most people work to earn a living, as opposed to funding leisure and future retirement. For nearly half of Canada’s caregivers, full-time work isn’t optional. For six out of 10 of them, neither is figuring out how to find formal supports. Research indicates four in 10 working caregivers worrying about paying their bills. It is not hard to fathom why many caregivers start their day tired and anxious. Elongated caregiving is on the rise on the home front as well. More young adult children in their early 20s to mid-30s are living with a parent. With persons 55-64 years of age holding two-thirds of household wealth in Canada, young adults are more likely to save for the future under their parents’ roofs. A recent study estimates that 18 per cent of young adults self-identify with high anxiety and another 13 per cent with depression while almost half worry about losing their jobs. Canada’s late midlife adults were also significantly mentally distressed, more so than older Canadians, during the pandemic. They also felt judged and more alone than older Canadians. Family conflicts and breakdowns were a source of stress, which other researchers identified as a risk factor for family conflicts, with anxiety and even suicidal thinking.Research tells us this demographic is unlikely to use community support services for things like meal preparation or fitness for themselves. Around one in four who needed health services had trouble accessing them. Others reported that they either did not get around to accessing services or wanted to go it alone. Research about how they stayed afloat during COVID-19 was lacking and remains largely absent.How people look at agingIn his book about psychosocial development, Life Cycle Completed, psychologist Erik Erikson remarked that historic change has the power to make people stop and rethink what old age looks like. Across 20 countries, at age 60, health satisfaction has had a great deal to do with how people see themselves aging. Before COVID-19, we designed a study that surveyed more than 500 Canadians in their 50s. They were feeling most pessimistic about aging physically, including their state of health. When it came to loss, what resonated most was difficulty making friends and seeing “old age” as a depressing time. A typical caregiver has been providing 35 hours of care per week. (Shutterstock) For these 50-somethings, being caught between helping younger generations and tending to their own growth was detrimental to self-confidence. Making time for activities that help people learn about and see good in themselves is time well spent. In the aftermath of COVID-19, late midlife adults are looking at an uncertain future. Statistics tell us that they currently anticipate poor health as early as age 71, and their own demise around age 81.Recent surveys further reveal they’re juggling an average of $300K in debt and are worried about household essentials, with with one in three also unprepared for the soaring cost of living, particularly for basic expenses and if already living paycheque to paycheque. Some even link historic shifts in co-residing young adults with older adults’ increasing debt loads. Meanwhile, federal funding priorities focus on programs for youth and on raising potential midlife caregivers’ awareness of older people’s support needs. Late midlife adults represent one of our nation’s major resources, given the socioeconomic and health-related roles they play as caregivers to young and old. But resources can become depleted: they need care, respect and sensitivity themselves in order to continue in those roles. It’s time to ask late midlife Canadians about the burdens they’re carrying, if the load is becoming too heavy, and how they are managing the load. This is a conversation well worth having.Gail Low receives funding from the RTOERO Foundation, University of Alberta, and MacEwan University. She works for MacEwan University and volunteers for the Gateway Association. Gloria Gutman is Professor Emerita at Simon Fraser University. She is a Past-president of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Canadadian Association on Gerontology, and International Network for Prevention of Elder Abuse.