"The sandwich generation is being chewed on at both ends," Novelli said. The boomer generation is struggling to help support aging parents and pay college tuition for their children.
—Ann McFeatters, "Boomers approaching retirement with angst," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 20, 2002

They have been called the ''sandwich generation.'' Some are in their 30s or 40s, caught between the needs of their growing children and the needs of their aging parents. Others are in their 50s or 60s - planning for relaxation and travel, their children grown - when they must take on a new guardianship, becoming parents to their parents.

Only now are social agencies beginning to recognize the sometimes desperate need of members of this middle generation for help in coping with the housing, financial, medical and emotional problems of their parents, as well as with their own guilt and resentment.
—Nadine Brozan, "'Sandwich generation' has parents, children to worry about," The Globe and Mail (from a story in The New York Times), May 18, 1978