The sandwich generation: Providing for elderly parents and adult children
The findings reflect an evolution in the image of who makes up the sandwich generation. In the past, the burden typically was shouldered by a middle-aged woman who stayed at home caring for young children and aging parents. During the recession and the slow recovery, more adult children have returned home while they look for jobs. Even the percentage of married couples living in a parent’s home has returned to levels not seen since the turn of the 20th century.
Demographic changes are behind much of the shift, said Charles R. Pierret, director of longitudinal surveys at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, who has surveyed the sandwich generation. Longer life expectancy and delayed childbearing mean that more middle-aged people have dependent children and parents who are still living.
The change can have enormous financial implications for parents caught in the middle.
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The death panels will fix that.
Oil Can on January 30, 2013 at 10:23 PM
Yesterday, I watched my grandchild. Today, I visited my mom (with Alzheimer’s) in a nursing home and tomorrow, I’ll watch my grandchild again. It’s life.
Fallon on January 30, 2013 at 10:43 PM
Not looking forward to when the sandwich generation doesn’t have enough bread (pun intended) to cover both ends.
MelonCollie on January 30, 2013 at 10:57 PM
Finances are tight for a lot of families. Mine included. You have to pull together and pool resources to survive during times like this. The one blessing in all of my family’s troubles is that we are relating to each other better, and have been praying a heck of a lot more than when times were easier.
Othniel on January 30, 2013 at 11:17 PM
Um, I’m going to say it’s the latter. Is there some reason Daughter has to live in Manhattan? Can she not live in Queens or Hoboken and commute? And let me guess: They will foot the bill for law school as well. And son is teaching English in Spain? Why not teach here, in a real school, with a real salary?
Michelle and her hubby need to cut these kids off. I promise you that when I stopped being subsidized, I found a way to make ends meet REAL quick.
And all of these parents with unemployed 20-somethings living in the basement? If they’re going to be giving them money anyway, why not require them to pick up some of the burden of shuttling their younger siblings to football practice and the mall, or Grandma to her appointment at the hair salon?
I looked after my grandmother for several years after my mother passed away. I certainly had moments when I felt frustrated and angry, but I was happy to be able to do it and would not have had it any other way. I don’t understand the hand-wringing over this sort of thing. As someone mentioned upthread — this is life. It used to always be this way. Stop looking on it as a burden and see the blessing in it instead.
NoLeftTurn on January 31, 2013 at 1:55 AM
Well, two generations providing for the next generation and the one two generations back, but yes.
Count to 10 on January 31, 2013 at 6:23 AM
Once again a common practice (before WWII) is treated as though an amazing change has occurred in the human condition.
Before SS, and the self absorbed Boomers, parents paid for kids, until they were self-sufficient with the understanding that when the parents got old, the kids would take care of them.
LincolntheHun on January 31, 2013 at 7:43 AM
Fallon…most of my adult life. And while I agree with most all that LincolntheHun says, so called adult children are not. They want to continue to live the life to which they have become accustomed…despite the hardship it may cause their older parents.
jatfla on January 31, 2013 at 8:06 AM