So Your Parents Are Old

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza

Jo Piazza, Influence Inc.

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, Parenting, Personal Journals, Technology

4.3 • 833 Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We talk a lot on this show about women doing too much. About the impossible math of modern life—motherhood, work, ambition, marriage, self-care, friendship—and then one day, another full-time job sneaks in: caregiving for your parents. That’s where I am right now. Squarely in the sandwich generation. Raising three small kids and moving my own mom from the suburbs into the city. This week, I’m joining the brilliant reporter Vanessa Grigoriadis on her new show So Your Parents Are Old for a crossover episode about what happens when the people who raised you suddenly need you to raise them. We get honest about the third shift—the invisible labor of caring for everyone at once—about guilt, burnout, and what it means to have zero minutes left to spare. If you want to subscribe to So Your Parents Are Old you can do it here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If I get my kid a phone, I'll be able to keep in touch with them all the time.
0:02.8	We'll be on it all the time.
0:04.1	He could walk to school by himself. She could see something, she shouldn't. He could chat with grandma. Friends, trolls. They can access anything on the internet. They can access anything on the internet. So, should I give my kid a phone? Growing up with phones isn't always easy. Introducing EEE safer Sims. Sims that help moderate usage and shield harmful content on any smartphone.
0:24.2	Choose EECF. Growing up with phones isn't always easy. Introducing EEE safer Sims. Sims that help moderate
0:21.4	usage and shield harmful content on any smartphone. Choose EEE safer Sims. Only on the UK's best
0:26.9	network. To verify best network see EE.com.ukuk slash claims. Hey all, Joe here and you are listening under the influence. Now, as many of you know, I am a 45-year-old
0:42.7	woman who is living squarely within the sandwich generation. And sometimes I think I identify
0:48.2	with the idea of being in the sandwich generation more than I identify with being an elder
0:53.8	millennial or a very young
0:55.9	Gen Xer, or as I like to call us elder millennial, very young Gen Xers, the Goonies.
1:04.0	Being a sandwich or Gooney is not easy. It means that we are working on raising children
1:09.3	while also caregiving for elderly parents.
1:12.5	It's a lot. It is. Nick's dad is 95 and they live in Milwaukee, so we're doing a lot of coordinating
1:19.5	with them remotely, and my own dad passed away nine years ago, and my mom's been living on her own
1:24.5	in the suburbs. This year, we decided to move her down to the city, which has been a massive, massive thing.
1:32.3	And while it's incredibly helpful in terms of caregiving for our children, we're also, you know,
1:38.7	really caregiving for her as well.
1:42.1	And I want to talk about that.
1:43.2	I want to talk about it because Vanessa
1:44.7	Gregoriatis has launched a wonderful new podcast called So Your Parents Are Old. And she asked me to be on
1:51.6	it. She asked if we could do a joint episode where I tell her my sandwich generation story. The show
1:56.7	itself is really good. Vanessa's an amazing reporter. and I've just admired the hell out of her for
	...

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