sandwiched

An article in today’s big paper tells me I’m doing the nation a great service, helping us save $53 billion. Bully for me! I’m doing this just  by being a Baby Boomer and hence the meat—I’ll settle for cheese—in a generational sandwich. A perfect storm of sociological synchronicity is squeezing me, my ageing parents needing my care, my offspring needing my money.

At this point a confession: I’m not pulling my weight here because I’m not good at either of these things. I also think the burden falls heaviest on later boomers, aged 48 to 55, than on me at 60.

These days adult children connect better with parents than previous generations, stay in (expensive) education longer, delay earning, and are too financially savvy to quit the comfort of the parental home. Meanwhile boomers’ parents need part- or full-time nursing.

I’d like to help my adult children with deposits on houses, but as a lifelong pauper relative to my boomer counterparts, I’ve got no cash to spare. They saw the writing on the wall early and support themselves. Always have. My son has earned, and never asked for a dollar, since he was 16. My daughter was a dish-pig for five years to support herself during tertiary education.

The previous generation, my parents, edge closer to care, no longer robustly healthy. At 87 my father might not endure too long, but he’s ambulant and sentient. My mother will be active a while yet. My sister moves house in a fortnight: she’ll be 20 minutes away from them instead of an hour.

My time, money and care remain unburdened, my contribution to that $53b minute. I’ll try not to spend the kids’ inheritance; it won’t be theirs during my lifetime. For my parents I’ll contribute in kind: paperwork, shopping, delivery to appointments, housework. This will begin soon.

My good woman is 52 and unlikely to see the backs of her children for years, the prospect of us living together distant. The free tertiary education I got—thanks Gough—and the affordable education my children got will elude her two. Three cars will never be in her drive; she now shares her car with her daughter; three will share come October.

Social research says we are more a product of our generation than of our parents. Taken from birth, a generation used to be 20 years, now it’s close to thirty.

From a cultural perspective, a generation is now about five years. Your average 19 year-old has no hope of seeing the world from a 14 year-old’s viewpoint. But that’s a story for another time.

Rock on.