Caregiving can be extremely stressful. Ask any new parent or someone who takes care of an ill parent or a spouse. The demands coupled with the desire to perform then out of love can still leave a person drained and frayed. I can remember when we first moved to Florida and I was a stay at home parent for the first year. The caregiving was not even that challenging but it was one of the hardest years of my life. I remember a friend asking how things were going. I told her about the kids, their friends, their pediatrician, their schools. Then she said to me, “What about your friends? Are you making new friends?” I realized that I really hadn’t even thought about taking care of myself, only my children. No wonder I was not happy.
I recently read a book that examines the idea of using robots as caregivers for children and the elderly. Apparently this is already in the experimentation stage and heading toward wider implementation. My first reaction was that this would never work. How could a robot possibly do the caregiving needed for a child like change a diaper or hold a crying baby and comfort her? And how could a robot take care of an older person and calm him down when upset? I just can’t see it.
Even if the robots can be developed to do the tasks, I still do not think this is a good use of technology. While caregiving by humans may be difficult and stressful, that does not mean it is to be avoided or done away with. By caring for others, we express our humanity. By serving others, we find our wholeness. In caregiving, we build character and form intimate bonds with others. We learn about balance and limits. We test ourselves emotionally and physically which helps us to grow and develop as mature human beings. Caregiving can help teach us to rely on God to sustain us.
Whatever using robots as caregivers may mean to those being cared for, I think it would deprive the caregivers (all of us at some point, in some capacity) of our need to take care of others for our own spiritual, psychological, and moral maturation. Take away caregiving and that seems to me like a recipe for cultivating self-absorbed people who expect to get their way and don’t want to be bothered with consideration for others.
Oh, and if you haven’t already guessed, this developing robots as caregivers stems from a lack of people to fill those jobs. Don’t we have a high unemployment rate? Aren’t people begging for jobs? Well, if caregiving jobs were higher paying, there would probably be many more people ready to do them. So how much do we really value children and older adults and people in various situations who need to be cared for?
Prayer: It can be very difficult to deal with the challenges of caregiving. The needs can be so great. And sometimes we don’t have the support that we need. But help us to remember that we find our truest selves, our highest good, and our fullest well-being in service to others. We are created to love. May we accept the lessons and insights that caregiving brings. And may we be truly supportive and compassionate to those who are caregivers and in need of care. Amen.
Lakewood United Church of Christ 