It’s my first time to hear the term “sandwich generation,” having lived all my life in a part in the world where it’s rarely written about or heard, so I decided to do some quick research. It turns out that The Sandwich Generation—a proper noun—stands for “a generation of people who care for their aging parents while supporting their own children.” This definition is from
“The Sandwich Generation,” the personal website of Carol Abaya who describes herself as a nationally recognized expert on the subject as well as on aging and elder/parent care issues.
The Abaya website says that the term “sandwich generation” was added to Merriam-Webster in July 2006; it’s not to be found in my
Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary, which, alas, turns out to have been published in 2003 or about three years before Ms. Abaya coined the term. The online
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary does have an entry defining “sandwich generation” exactly as in Ms. Abaya’s website, and noting that the term had its first known use in 1987.
At any rate, here’s something that should enlighten everybody about what the “sandwich generation” is all about. Ms. Abaya classifies those falling under the sandwich generation as follows:
(1) Traditional: those sandwiched between aging parents who need care and/or help and their own children.
(2) Club Sandwich: those in their 50s or 60s sandwiched between aging parents, adult children and grandchildren, or those in their 30s and 40s, with young children, aging parents and grandparents.
(3) Open Faced: anyone else involved in elder care.
So, as you requested, VrackGrl27, I’m now in a pretty good position to use the term properly in a sentence. Here goes:
“I learned today that by age, I should by rights now be a fully qualified member of the Sandwich Generation, but also that I’m unclassifiable as a Club Sandwich because I’m not in the ‘50s or 60s sandwiched between aging parents, adult children and grandchildren’ nor in the ‘30s and 40s, with young children, aging parents and grandparents.’ Neither am I a Traditional because I’m not ‘sandwiched between aging parents who need care and/or help and their own children,’ nor Open Faced because I’m not ‘involved in elder care.’”
Well, by that analysis, it turns out that under the definition of the Sandwich Generation, I was a briefly a member of it two or so decades ago, but not anymore by a twist of fate and demographics!
