I haven’t written a post in a while because I’ve been taking care of my elderly and ailing parents, who live about a thousand miles from me.  Saying that this is a difficult time for me is putting it mildly.  On the other hand, the situation would be much worse if I still had children at home or if I had a ‘regular job.’  I empathize with and am concerned about people who are trying to care for their own children as well as their elderly parents.  Although their ages may vary, these adult children are part of the Sandwich Generation.  And, more and more people are joining the Sandwich Generation every day because of the trend toward delaying marriage and child-bearing.

And, what happens when an adult child has to take an extended leave from work?  One of the reasons I left corporate American was because I needed to care for my father, who has a progressively debilitating neurological disease. I first tried taking a leave of absence (FMLA allows up to 12 weeks over a 12-month period) and then tried cutting back to part-time work.  In the end, the only way to get the degree of flexibility and the amount of time that I needed was to quit my job.

I don’t have the answers, but the growing number of workers in the Sandwich Generation is something to think about for employers and for our elected officials.