It is OK to make a tough situation work for you. It’s a good lesson to learn early on, actually…life isn’t perfect, and we have to make the best of things.

Totally off topic, but:

@Phil – I laughed so hard that coffee came out of my nose when I read the disc jokey thing. I know I don’t know you THAT well, but that was just too funny to me. I used to want to be a lawyer, if that’s any consolation. (You can laugh right back.) Then I went to work for lawyers, because I couldn’t afford school yet, and I decided against it. Big money saved.

Best of luck with college financing, even though it’s a few years off. My oldest is a HS junior, so we’re looking at it right now, and she didn’t understand (despite our efforts) the importance of good grades until the third quarter of this year.

If you children have the grades (mine don’t), look at Harvard. The university’s endowment fund has done so well, that Harvard is providing nearly a free ride for children of parents below certain income levels (I think the figure is $60,000 annually) who are accepted.

It’s not just marketing flack, either. Talked to someone recently who said they were able to get a son through Harvard for less than $10,000 for four years.

Another possibility may be to ensure they qualify as beinbg independent from you and have them borrow the money themselves. Granted, college was a lot less expensive when I went, but I repaid all loans, including the money I borrowed from my parents. When I repaid my parents five years after I graduated (meaning I ate a lot of tuna and tomato soup), it paid for my youngest brother’s first year of college.

In my experience, the time it takes for press releases to get made into finished articles can be anywhere from a few weeks to several months.

The experience has turned into an invaluable lesson for me. Needless to say, I won’t work for this client again.

While I all for getting your claim to the fame you’ve worked for, I think that it is important to remember that we do have a responsibility to prepare the way for the next generation that will rightly take our places some day. Every professional out there knows that this is the proper cycle of life, so instead of complaining about it, we need to embrace it. It’s how you grow old with style.

My younger brother pointed out a new aid that Stanford came up with – free tuition for those earning less than I think it was $90k or free tuition, room and board to families where parents earn less than $50k. My son’s taken online gifted courses through Stanford, so we’ve told him to keep his grades up throughout high school and if Stanford still has that program when it comes time for college – it makes sense to try to get in with them.

Otherwise, I can’t see either of our kids going to college. Lesson to be learned here–if you opt to buy a home – be prepared for all that life throws your way.

We didn’t learn until after the fact but the builder who built these homes used all kinds of short cuts that inspectors missed. No tar paper under the roofing – no Tyvek under the siding. Undersized doors and windows that are no longer available without custom ordering or increasing the size of the window/door frame. Plumbing that isn’t up to code – same with electricity.

Every penny we earn is going into fuel, gas or home upgrades to get the house in reasonable shape. Thankfully, our kids see us struggle and have come to realize just how hard it is to get buy without a good education and dedication to your job.

I tried freelancing for months, and I managed to land a few local gigs. However, as my daughter became older, napped less, and became more demanding on my time, and it became necessary to spend three hours of the day driving so my husband can get to work and back, freelancing became a much less viable option. I simply didn’t have the time to search for and apply to job postings since my computer is in a room she’s not allowed into for safety reasons. So, I searched and found another way to work-from-home with a more flexible schedule.

By the way, my first choice after college was to be in radio-TV (my degree), but three months as a midnight disc jockey pushed me into print (and virtual print) forever.