The Double-Decker "Sandwich Generaton"

I often refer to the phenomenon of the "Sandwich Generation," but for many of us, it's a Dagwood special double- or triple-decker sandwich!

While I'm in my forties and recently had the priviledge of caring for my 70-something year old mother as she recovered from hip replacement surgery last month, it's Mom who is taking care of my 95-year-old grandmother! In fact, it was due to Nana's congestive heart-failure last spring that prolonged my mother getting her hip replaced when the doctor first told her she needed it. Not wanting to put my grandmother in a nursing home (afterall, she'd been working full-time until her heart problems arose), my mother put Nana's needs before her own.

How many of us are experiencing this multi-generational occurrence in our lives?

The truth is that we're living longer and there's simply more generations on the ladder. As Abigail Trafford of the Washington Post points out, "Instead of one 'sandwich' generation to take care of dependent children and frail older relatives, there are now two vigorous generations in the middle -- young parents in their twenties, thirties and forties, and healthy grandparents in their fifties, sixties and seventies." Instead of expanding horizontally, we're now expanding vertically!

To read the rest of her article, go to: More Meat in the Middle