上有老下有小

1. • lit. above are the elderly, below are the young (idiom)
2. • fig. to have to take care of both one's aging parents and one's children
3. • sandwich generation

Character by character

• 上(shàng)up
• 有(yǒu)have
• 老(lǎo)prefix used before the surname of a person or a numeral indicating the order of birth of the children in a family or to indicate affection or familiarity
• 下(xià)down
• 有(yǒu)have
• 小(xiǎo)young