Gender Differences in Carers

(Canada)

35-year-old eldest & only daughter here, with two younger brothers. All single. I'm unemployed, which means the day-to-day care-taking of our 78-year-old dementia-suffering father falls to me, since I 'have the time'.

Meanwhile my brothers are enjoying full (and expensive) lives of leisure. The other justification I hear is that our dad is and has always been a 'difficult' person. They indulge in anger over decades-old hurts.

I find it emotionally draining to balance a job-search with caring duties, and shudder to think of what will happen to our dad once (if) I do find the full-time work I need to survive. On the rare occasions my brothers take an interest, they offer opinions on how 'important' decisions around money and property should be handled.

I feel that more robust legislation and policy around care-taking leave, and compensation might help encourage people to engage more fully in the process. (In any case, it won't give my brothers such a ready excuse.)