For some time now we have used the phrase “sandwich generation" to describe middle aged people who care for young children while at the same time caring for their elderly parents. However, this picture has become less than accurate for today’s demographics. People begin to take care of their elderly parents at much later ages than in previous generations, generally not until they have entered late middle age or even early old age. During this stage their children are more likely to be partially dependent adults in college or adult children who have temporarily returned to the family home. They could also be married children in need of help with small children. This new demographic has been termed the Club Sandwich Generation: those in their fifties and sixties who are sandwiched between aging parents, adult children and grandchildren.
These demographic changes have been noted in all developed countries. In one survey done in Great Britain it was found that the number of women aged 60 to 69 with a mother still living had increased substantially. In the early twentieth century only 4 to 7 percent of sixty year olds had one parent still living, today that percentage is closer to 49 percent.
Special Problems of the Club Sandwich Generation
If you belong to this Club Sandwich Generation it is likely that you are facing some special problems that you never expected to face. No one ever prepared you because no one knew what affect increased longevity would have. The Club Sandwich generation faces what experts have termed the “financial trifecta.” You’re either saving for college or paying it off, helping your parents with medical or nursing home expenses and saving for your own retirement which may be fast approaching.
Being in the midst of this Club Sandwich can take its emotional toll. Often siblings disagree on how to help parents or refuse to take part. Children who are approaching adulthood may be placing fresh demands on you. Changes in socioeconomic and cultural factors can keep young adults at least partially dependent longer than in previous generations. Extended education may increase the need for emotional and economic dependence. Difficulty finding work and divorce may also send the kids back home. In 1990 25 percent of young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 lived with their parents; in 2007 this figure went all the way up to 50 percent. On top of this, with greater longevity there is often more than one parent who needs care and frequently on both sides of the family. Durham has called this the ‘nutcracker generation’ to depict the pressure of being in the middle of conflicting generations with conflicting needs. Ferida Wolf, author of the article, “Club Sandwich Generation,” put it well when she said, “I am sandwiched between my daughter and my father and my father and my in-laws. More of a club sandwich than a mere pastrami on rye.”
