The expression sandwich generation first appeared in the late 70s, though its popularization is often associated with US journalist Carol Abaya, who has written extensively on the issue since the early 90s and helped secure the expression’s entry into established dictionaries in the mid 2000s. Abaya even coined the related expression club sandwich generation to describe either people 50 and over with adult children, grandchildren and aging parents, or people in their 30s or 40s who have young children, aging parents and grandparents (the expression is an apt extension of the sandwich metaphor since a club sandwich is a ‘thicker’ version with ‘three’ slices of bread).