Reception, transmission, support for families … Fortunately, “boomers” are there!

In the middle of COVID-19 pandemic, France is confined and the movements limited to the bare minimum. Françoise and Philippe, a retired couple, are worried.

Their son -in -law has just won unexpected job in Normandy and their daughter tries to leave her accommodation in Corsica to join him, with their 7 -month -old baby. What to do? The grandparents then mobilize to prepare for the departure of the family. Equipped with travel authorizations, they start a 800 km journey by car from Essonne, embark on a boat for Corsica, then pack boxes. The full chest, Françoise and Philippe hit the road with their daughters and granddaughters. Direction Évreux (Eure), where their stepson obtained an emergency apartment, so that his family settled there.

The episode is worthy of a chivalrous epic but when Françoise evokes it, her voice lights up. “We would brave storms for our children!” She exclaims. I can’t imagine leaving them in the galley! At 68, this grandmother of three grandchildren embodies a foolproof solidarity that sweeps away the stereotypes on baby boomers. This generation, born between 1945 and 1965, is found at the heart of the news. It owes its name to the baby boom: the explosion of births after the Second World War. In this large age group, the profiles vary, from the sixties in great shape, still in working life, to the octogenarian already a grandparent of young adults, to the sometimes reduced mobility. But in recent years, the qualifier of “boomer” has taken an extensive and pejorative turn to designate grumpy ancestors which refuse to see society evolve. Selfish, they would be enriched to the detriment of the following generations, as the British politician David Willetts or the French sociologist Louis Chauvel say. At the end of August 2025, Prime Minister François Bayrou even declared in a dramatic momentum that the public debt had been partly dug “for the comfort of boomers”.

Born at the “good time”

In fact, those over 60 have benefited from a mild economic situation during their working life, in particular with regard to access to real estate. So much so that they would hold more than 60 % of the total heritage of France today, according to the French Observatory for Economic Conditions. And, once withdrawn from the professional world, the French born between 1940 and 1970 receive an average of 70 to 80 % of their net salary according to the pension orientation council. The rate of their children and grandchildren born in the 2000s will only vary from 63 % to 68 %. In a context of soaring real estate, a crisis of confidence in political institutions and inflation, will the war of generations take place?

“We are mistaken about target, castigates Brigitte, 69, from her second home in Nevers (Nièvre). It is not the boomers that must be pointed out but our economic system that breaks down. For many French people, income is no longer enough to become a owner and to live decently. My son is a lecturer at the university and earns only 2,500 euros per month, and my daughter-in-law, a teacher, earns around 2,000 euros. They must tighten the belt and deprive themselves of vacation to repay the credit of their apartment that they bought at too substantial prices! After a long reflection, Brigitte and her husband decided to sell their pavilion with garden located in the west of Paris and swap it for smaller accommodation. Part of the sum will be used to reimburse the loan from the young household.

In a period when the French middle class experiences a feeling of social downgrading, baby boomers provide often crucial help to families. Wealthy households use more donations-party, the act which makes it possible to transmit goods to his heirs during his lifetime. According to an INSEE study published in 2018, 65 % of donor households are 70 and over.

But not all seniors have the means to financially support their descendants. Generosity then manifests itself by other gestures, an invisible solidarity which maintains social cohesion. In a 2021 survey for the magazine Our time (Bayard group, to which belongs The pilgrim) IFOP notes that 51 % of grandparents – all ages combined – keep their grandchildren on vacation at least 21 days a year. When they live nearby, they take up eight hours a week on average; And some go through France to come to the rescue of overwhelmed parents. “When my grandson was born, I went back and forth by train each week between my original city, near Montpellier, and Paris, where his parents live,” recalls Françoise, 74 years old. I arrived on Tuesday evening; I left Thursday morning. I still make the trip, about two Wednesdays a month. »»

At the height of his 80th birthday, Michel, he has kept his 3-year-old great-frills several times a month, who has decked him out of the nickname of Papu. Within the family, he takes advantage of his handyman’s talents. “I insisted with my daughter to put the tiles of her bathroom myself in her house in Moselle,” says this resident of the Vosges. This represented three days of travel per week for a month. The days were long, but I had fun doing it, and I also think that I belong to an age group that does not like idleness. »»

GENERATION SANDWICH

Dynamic and sustaining, the baby boom generation must nevertheless deal with contradictions. She experienced the culture and social shock of May 1968, the movements for civil rights, the appeal of freedom and independence … A number of her representatives are not ready to give up a fulfilling personal life, and therefore seek the point of balance between Hobbies, volunteering activities, travel and help for children. But they can also benefit their loved ones from their own path of emancipation during their youth.

Pauline, 68 (read below), was one of these new “mothers at work”, who juggled between maternity and a career as a sales director. “It was thanks to my mother that I was able to get this position, because she came to keep my children at each school holiday period,” says the retiree. Today, I take over from my daughter-in-law as soon as I can, because I want her to flourish in her work, like me. »»

And then, and we think about it too much, these baby boomers must also watch over their parents. A historical observation. Never in the past have so many age groups have been brought to cohabit. “It is a sandwich generation, notes Anne-Marie Guillemard, specialist in social protection policies. Since 1995, at least four generations have been coexist within families, because the life expectancy of the French is getting longer, and more and more among them exceed 90, even 100 years.” Many baby boomers support their elders on a daily basis in loss of autonomy: in France, 23.5 % of caregivers are between 60 and 65 years old 3 . They pay administrative tasks, manage food races, and often end up playing the nursing assistants when the disease settles.

Among these caregivers, Régine, 72 years old did not have a restful confinement. During the pandemic of Covid-19, from her house in Brittany, she took a lot of her older sister, suffering from Alzheimer and residing in nursing homes. But she also called her grandchildren in Angoulême (Charente) via social networks daily, and had to deploy treasures of imagination to occupy them. “The school was closed, and my daughter and my son -in -law were forced to work all day at home, says Régine. So I light up my computer’s camera and occupied the little ones with games and homework.”

In the great upheaval of these Covid years, the grandparents have asserted themselves as ramparts in the face of social fragility. First designated as particularly vulnerable to the virus, they were then very present with their family. On the arrival of a third wave of coronavirus, in the spring of 2021, the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, also capitulated. While the government was to prohibit interregional trips throughout the territory, parents benefited from an exception to take their children to their grandparents. “Today, faced with the multiplication of crises – economic, ecological and health -, boomers appear to be benchmarks of stability, analyzes Serge Guérin, sociologist specializing in age -related questions. They transmit values, history, traditions. They create a feeling of continuity between generations.” They also bring together, at the time of geographically and emotionally exploded families.

Double -meaning transmission

Reassuring, these grandparents offer a privileged listening space to their grandchildren. “When I retired, I had a lot more time to devote to my novel grandson,” says Anita, 73. Previously, I worked with four children to raise. We sometimes had barely time to discuss … It’s a crazy chance of being able to know everything about the life of my grandson, away from the whirlwind of life! This intergenerational link is strengthened in the all-in-numeric era. From now on, it is the youngest turn to teach uses to their elders, by piercing the secrets of social networks and artificial intelligence. “My grandson showed me the video game he invented by doing computer coding,” says Françoise. And my teenage granddaughters know how to make up better than me since they have looked at tutorials on the internet. This new generation is so resourceful! »»

Now, those over 60 cultivate their proximity to their grandchildren by developing a relationship of reciprocity where the transmission is in double sense. In many families, the true story of these boomers remains that of solidarity and link.

1) Source: pension monitoring committee.

2) The first name has been changed.

3) DREES, 2021.