Key keywords: intergenerational care expectations, aging parent financial support, filial piety across generations, Gen Z vs Boomers family duties, elder care responsibility gap, multigenerational family obligation norms, cross-generational family conflict, US senior care system A 2024 Pew Research Center survey of 3,200 U.S. adults across four generations has exposed a striking cultural rift over what children owe their aging parents, with attitudes shifting dramatically across age groups. Baby Boomers (born 1946–1964), the oldest group surveyed, hold the most traditional views on filial obligation. Nearly 68% of Boomers report that adult children have a binding moral obligation to provide financial support to aging parents if the parents cannot cover living or medical expenses on their own, and 72% say children should prioritize regular in-person visits and hands-on care for parents with health issues. Most Boomers reference their own experiences caring for their own parents as a baseline, noting that stable post-war employment, affordable housing, and generous pension plans allowed them to balance care duties with their own household costs. Gen X (born 1965–1980), often labeled the “sandwich generation,” falls in the middle of the divide: 52% say they feel obligated to support aging parents, but 61% of respondents in this group report already struggling to balance elder care costs, their own retirement savings, and expenses for their teenage or young adult children. Many Gen X adults note that unlike Boomers, they rarely have access to guaranteed pension plans, making it far harder to set aside extra funds for parental care. Millennials (born 1981–1996) hold far more skeptical views, with only 37% saying they feel a moral duty to provide direct financial support to aging parents. 78% of Millennial respondents report carrying significant student loan debt, paying 30% or more of their income in rent, and facing stagnant wages that make long-term savings nearly impossible. Most Millennials say they would prefer to split care duties with siblings or leverage public senior care resources rather than taking on the full burden alone, and many express resentment that Boomer-era policy choices that drove up housing and education costs are now leaving younger generations unable to meet family expectations. Gen Z (born 1997–2012), the youngest group surveyed, holds the most individualistic views: only 22% say adult children owe their parents financial or long-term care support. Most Gen Z respondents argue that parents should be responsible for their own retirement planning, rather than shifting that burden to their children, and note that they already face unprecedented economic precarity from gig work instability, student debt, and rising cost of living that makes supporting elder family members unfeasible for most. This divide has already driven a rise in family conflict during holiday gatherings and family meetings, with many younger adults reporting they are delaying marriage, having children, or purchasing homes specifically to avoid the added pressure of supporting multiple generations of family members.