Since Lazarsfelds’ surveys in 1930, several studies have pointed out the economical, psychological and relational consequences of the unemployment experience. But only few of them focus on the children’s future. Nevertheless, the employment crisis in western countries since the mid-seventies has emphasized the issue of normative models in long-term unemployed families. This article is based on crossed interviews inside the families and tries to explain the logics of generational transmission in a context of transformation of the relation to work and employment. Two keys can help analyse the personal, domestic and social issues of this lasting crisis: a possible parental suffering and the opportunity for the child to build up interpersonal relationships based on mutual trust.