Sandwich Generation Summary

In Charles R. Plerret’s 2006 article, They ‘Sandwich Generation’: Women Caring for Parents and Children, Plerret discusses the relatively new term “sandwich generation” and what qualifies a woman as being associated with this title and the percentage of women in this demographic. Plerret looks at a study conducted from 1968 to 2003 they took a group of women and conducted a personal interview roughly five times a year, resulting in 22 interviews per woman over the course of the study. Through this study they focused on the support of parents and children both monetarily and physically/ emotionally, through this we see the demographic of woman who were taking on the role of supporting both parents and children simultaneously. From that data …show more content…
The data was separated by support for parents, support for children, and simultaneous support. The support for parents showed that three percent had co-resident parents, eight percent fell into the $200 range, and 6.2 percent were giving $1,000 or more to a parent. Also, one-fifth of women gave 100 hours of support- ranging from personal care to running errands, ten percent gave 500 hours. In the children category it is said eleven percent has children under 14 living at home, one-third had \at least one child in college- eleven percent were living at home while attending college, and one-fifth support their college student. Also, about 40 percent of women gave $200, and 25 percent were giving $1,000. Finally, the simultaneous support is where we find the …show more content…
She started out living with us as a way to save money- she was able to sell the house she lived in as well as providing free at home child care for my younger sister who was not school aged at the time. However, around 2005 she was involved in a bad car wreck and her health spiraled quickly, forcing my mother to take on a new role as a care giver and health advisor of sorts. The toll that this took on both my parents and my grandmother was clear even as a middle school aged child. My mother was forced to quit her job in order to accompany her to doctor appointments and to provide simple tasks that she was no longer able to do, and it was embarrassing for my grandmother not be able to care for herself- although she would never tell you this. Long story short, I was curious to see where my parents fit into this equation. I felt like the article was well written and even with a lot of facts being thrown at you was an interesting read. Plerret did a good job, in my opinion, deciphering who would be classified and setting a common standard for future