A Summary for “Sandwich Generation”
(Unit 5)
Name: 尹雪花 Class: 英语1班 Academy: 化学化工学院 2013年11月30日
A summary of the text “sandwich generation”
In this article, the author discusses a serious problems that the sandwich generation is faced with, that is, the difficulty of struggling to care for their children and their elders, while holding down a job as well. Obviously, they don't have enough time and energy to run on. They are tired with busy working all days but they can not take a breath. Once they stop working, they can not afford the expense of life like pay of the house-loaning, continue child's education.
In the first place, the author tells Anne’s story (she was unable to look after her old mother because she had to devote herself to her work and look after her children, she finally agreed to take her mother when the hospital promised to help arrange some home care.) to introduce the issue that the sandwich generation has great difficulty in caring for their children and their parents. Then she analyzes the causes of this problem: (1) Today’s seniors had fewer children and there are fewer family members to share the burden. (2) People working twice as hard than before to stay in the same place. People are not always available and families have changed.
In the second part of the text, more specific examples (such as Sharon Murray’s story, Marylou Griffin’s story) are given to further explain problems connected with the elder care. Also the author points out that even when an elderly parent lives independently, responsibilities can weigh heavily on their children. And the workers, who have some elder-care responsibilities, have more stress, less job satisfaction, and more absence than their collea gues. Even for those who don’t have to worry about work pressures and taking care of children, caring for their elders may be something painful.
In the third part of the text, the author gives us one example (Francis Littlejohn’s story, he take in his older aunt in his family, and they get on well) to show that there are some families can deal with the olders care well.
Finally, the author draws the conclusion that for many Canadian families who bear a wide range of new responsibilities, elder care can take a physical and emotional sacrifice.