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OUR FIVE KIDS SPENT a collective 24 years in college. All five have bachelor’s degrees, and three also have master’s degrees. The youngest graduated May 2023. Only one child qualified for non-merit aid—a $300 Pell grant.
My wife and I didn’t give them money for college. We don’t live near a major public university, so four of the five had to live on campus. Here’s what prepared them for college and how to pay for it.
First, grade school is more important than college. If a kid gets lost there, you can forget about any other education. They’ll struggle everywhere. But excel at grade school and they’ll be able to make it anywhere. Our kids went to a small rural Catholic grade school. I don’t think the teachers were any better than public school teachers. But the classroom discipline was very conducive to learning.
Next, tell your kids the hard truth. Our oldest child was smarter than average and a forward thinker. Renee came to me in sixth grade and asked, “Daddy, when I go to college, you’ll pay for it, won’t you?” I looked into my daughter’s beautiful brown eyes and said, “No, we won’t.”
I knew at the time that, if we paid for all of our children’s education, we’d have to beg, borrow or steal some $500,000. I explained to Renee that her parents would be ruined financially if we borrowed money for each kid’s college education. The best we could do was get each of them through high school and then they were on their own. We were not going into debt for them.
That was a lot for a sixth grader to take in—but she now knew she’d have to do it on her own. It pushed her to excel. Our oldest set the bar high, and the other kids then followed her lead.
Renee talked to the guidance counselor as soon as she reached high school. She explained her goals for college and her lack of parental support. She did this in the first week of her freshman year. The counselor was surprised. This was unusual for a freshman. The counselor provided some good advice that led to scholarships four years later.
The guidance counselor also put her in contact with a teacher who oversaw a highly active student organization running multiple events each year. Renee took on leadership positions and eventually became the organization’s president. She also had smaller roles in some of the academic clubs. But remember this: It’s better to do a few things extremely well than to have a student resume listing gobs of organizations where the student could only have had minimal involvement.
Competitions are important. Any sort of competition—but particularly academic—should be sought after. It all adds up, whether it is school-wide, district, regional, state or national. Children shouldn’t be afraid to put themselves out there.
Kids should also take every hard or advanced course they can, and then strive to keep their grades up. When struggling, they should stay in constant contact with their teachers. You’d be surprised how much teachers, for the most part, really do want to teach. But you have to ask for help.
Choose college majors wisely. It has a big bearing not only on future job opportunities, but also on the scholarships that are obtainable. My oldest was planning to major in business and later become a lawyer. I was doubtful. Everything I read said the country was drowning in lawyers and it was an expensive degree to get. Then Renee was invited to a gifted student conference at a major university, along with a few hundred other Kentucky high school students.
The students and parents met in a huge gym and were asked to follow the representative of whatever school they were interested in as a major. I’d say 75% of the students and parents got up to follow the engineering school representative. We ditched the business school and went with the engineers. We found out that the job opportunities for engineers were one of the best, if not the best, for students from that university.
It’s also a great idea for the student to work jobs while in high school. It could be fast food, babysitting or pretty much anywhere. It teaches the value of a dollar, looks great on a student resume and shows you can balance school, work and extracurricular activities. The extra money isn’t bad, either.
College entrance exams like SAT and ACT are pretty standard, though some universities don’t require them anymore. But it seems to me that, if you want a big scholarship, they’ll be asking for those scores.
I had my kids test up to 10 times on the ACT to get the highest score possible. Three ended with 31s out of a perfect score of 36. This had a huge bearing on what they ended up with in scholarships.
Look for the big scholarships, internships and conditional job stipends. Three of our kids were selected for the Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program. Every year, a few get picked for the program from each high school. It was a huge factor when winning multi-year scholarships from Kentucky universities.
The kids all earned money through internships while at college, either during the summer months or during the semester, when the internships served in lieu of classes. Three had part-time jobs during the college academic year as well. Three of our children received stipends from the state while earning civil engineering degrees. In return, they were required to work for the state after graduation. Each of the three kids got about $50,000, and had to work one year for each academic year that they’d received the stipend.
Our youngest was selected to attend a college residential program for math and science students after her sophomore year of high school. This led to a free education and she actually made money each semester. She became a mechanical engineer.
One child didn’t get the big scholarships. Instead, she attended a community college, and later took online and Zoom courses to complete her four-year degree and later her master’s degree in education.
Finally, each came out of college with no student loans and money in the bank. The youngest had $43,000 in her bank account. We have three civil engineers, one mechanical engineer and one grade-school teacher.
True story.
They all have other problems, as does any individual, so don’t envy us. But this part of their lives turned out better than we ever dreamed—and it’s a reason I could retire at age 60.
Ken Begley has worked for the IRS and as an accountant, a college director of student financial aid and a newspaper columnist, and he also spent 42 years on active and reserve service with the U.S. Navy and Army. Now retired, Ken likes to spend his time with his family, especially his grandchildren, and as a volunteer with Kentucky’s Marion County Veterans Honor Guard performing last rites at military funerals, including more than 350 during the past three years. Ken’s previous articles were Loosening My Grip and How I Got This Way.
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My mom once told me this:
“You only have one child, so don’t be cheap. Send her to graduate school! Who doesn’t have master’s degree these days?”
Me!
Since I didn’t go to college until I was 25, I paid my own way through undergrad and grad school while working because I figured I wasn’t my parent’s responsibility anymore. But my wife and I did manage to pay about 2 years each for both of our kids. The rest they did by taking out loans, scholarships and working. But I find it absolutely ridiculous that the cost of higher education (or even K-12) has gotten to the point the parents and/or the kids have to go into debt or spend savings to pay a possible 5-6 figure tuition, room and board tab.
I totally agree with your approach. It is my belief that if you don’t earn it you don’t appreciate it. There have been many documented cases of kids doing well in college that their parents paid for but the avg dropout rate is 41% and i would suspect that most of these “kids” don’t have any skin in the game.
My parents were not able to send us 7 kids to college, but 4 of us went. Interesting to note the 3 who didn’t go were/are as successful as those who did. It took me many years in night school to finally get my associates in business but I got a promotion and didn’t go any further. I helped my oldest some but he worked every other semester to also help pay his way and is a VP now in a large comercial contracting firm. I was able to pay for my youngest to go to college and he failed out twice, some $60k or so down the drain. He is doing ok working in maintenance at an airport in Denver now but not a lot of prospects to move up. I am contributing to our two grandsons 529 plans but there is not enough there to put them through school. My son who mostly paid his way will have this decision to make.
It is my opinion that hard knocks build character and handouts help create laziness. Not exclusive but a large percentage, see dropout rate.
I also don’t think that calling children kids is derogatory in any way shape or form.
I worked several years longer to pay for my “off-spring’s” (don’t want to offend anyone) educations. Did I miss out on a few years of enjoying retirement? Did I trade some of my leisure for a better start for them? I did, and intentionally so. I don’t feel cheated, but it does feel great to see them very secure and successful
Not to paint with a broad brush, but all handouts do not create laziness.
Different strokes for different folks. My wife and I have been very fortunate to have accumulated more than we will ever spend in retirement, so we have had to give a great deal of thought to where those “excess” assets will go when we die. After leaving a large chunk of our sizable traditional IRA’s to charity, we have decided to fully fund tuition, room, and board for four years at a state university for our 9 grandchildren as the next priority, provided they maintain a satisfactory GPA and finish before age 30. Our rationale is that college has become very expensive, and our children all got a late start in life in building their own financial security. This allows our children to focus on saving for their own retirements (we will only be leaving the children a modest amount) rather than attempting to accomplish multiple excessively expensive goals with too few years to do it.
However, having come from very modest means and being the first person in my family to go to college, and having the military fund all of my degrees through my doctorate, I appreciate there are multiple valid approaches to this challenge.
There is something that doesn’t add up (to me) based on two statements in the article. 1. “Only one child qualified for non-merit aid—a $300 Pell grant.” 2. “The best we could do was get each of them through high school and then they were on their own. We were not going into debt for them.” With five children. I assume that for many years there were multiple children attending college at the same time. If the ONLY need-based aid that any child qualified for was a $300 Pell grant, doesn’t that imply a very high income? I am struggling to jibe the lack of need-based aid with the idea that any help beyond high school would require going into debt.
Remember, the amount of financial aid is based not only on the parents’ income and assets, but also on the cost of the school — and that financial aid can take the form of loans rather than grant money, especially at public institutions.
Lot of factors here and I could write another column on it. My eldest graduated in 2013 with a BS and got her masters after she married. She paid her way through college on merit based scholarships, a state stipend with requirement to work for the state after graduation (Department of Transportation stipend – roughly $50,000 over four years) and 1 1/2 years of paid but required employment as an engineer in training which is spliced in between semesters on campus. U of L has the engineers either in school or working as an engineer continuously until they get their degree as part of their program. The work is required.
My second went to community college and stayed at home. Then later doing most of her work online or attending zoom classes that was in partnership with a four year college to get a BA as a K-5 teacher while working parttime. She graduated around 2016 and got a masters after she got married. She is the one that got the $300 Pell money and received other merit based scholarship money.
The third followed what the first did at U of L but stayed to get a masters and graduated in 2018.
The fourth went to Western Ky University with the same deal of receiving a state stipend from the KY Transportation Cabinet while receiving other merit based aid. She got her BS and graduated in 2020. She worked through four summers to include after high school working as an engineer in training for three of those summers.
The fifth was selected to attend college after completing her sophomore year of high school at a resident course at the Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science at Western Kentucky University. Unusual school. Mr. Martin help fund this school in conjunction with the state and Western to pick talented teens from Kentucky. You attend free for those two years regardless of your income but you have to be a STEM major and they help pick your classes which were all regular WKU classes. Later Western offered a full ride for the remainder of her education if she stayed there, had a 3.8 GPA average and a 31 ACT. In addition, she worked four summers to include two summers at the Ky Util. Power Plant in Ghent, KY and one as a research assistant at Western. She graduated this last May with 162 hours as a Mechanical Engineer with a total of five years of college counting Gatton. She was required to take a lot of STEM hours at Gatton that she didn’t need for Mech. Engineering.
Those state transportation stipends mean you will work for lower starting salaries for a few years and are written off year for year. So there is a price. They are hard to get and applicants are vetted.
It is also interesting to note that three of my girls worked one summer each on the line in local factories. One in a printing plant and two in automative plants. They didn’t want to go back there.
Hope that answers your questions.
Ken, thank you for your article. I really enjoyed hearing about your approach to your children’s education. It is a topic a lot of us think a lot about, judging by the comments. Obviously you and your wife were very involved in your children’s lives and education. Our family’s approach has been different, starting with my parents and my wife’s parents. My wife and I had our education paid for and finished school without debt, thanks to our parents and we have done the same for our children and have started helping with grandchildren. It sounds like your children had considerable guidance from you and your wife as to how to attain higher education and they succeeded. Congratulations! Good job!
If a goal is to get ACT or SAT (or other standardized test) scores up, a student who does the work in a prep class will get better. It is worth the money and effort.
This only addresses one small point in the article, but this is an area where a parent may want to spend $ in advance of college.
I have mixed emotions about your approach to your children’s education. They seemed to have done well. Congratulations on that. However, it could have turned out differently without parental support.
I understand that you could not afford to pay the full cost of 4 year educations for 5 children. But was there a middle ground where you would pay for part of their education? Among other things, this would show that you were truly vested in their future.
Perhaps if you had delayed your retirement until age 65, you could have afforded to help them.
Just to add my personal experience to my comments. I grew up in Appalachia in a blue collar family. My parents could not afford to pay for my college and back in the 1960s, there was not an abundance of public colleges like there is now.
I went to a business college for 1.5 years, and later went to school at night to get a 4 year BS in Accounting. All of that was paid for by me with a great assist from my wife who kept the home fires burning while I was going to school at night (we had 2 small children at the time).
I was very thankful for the support my parents gave me and my sisters growing up. We never lacked for any thing we truly needed. My paretns were great providers for their family. I fully understood their inability to pay for college.
If you get very old and frail, your children may have to choose what nursing home you go to. How will you feel if your children say they’re not going to go in debt for a nice nursing home for you and you have to go to the cheapest, poorest one?
I don’t think that’ll be an issue. It sounds like they have a wonderful family unit who collectively prioritize the best path.
I am with you Hank, I am always amazed at the way some smart nice parents think making there children do things the hard way is the way to go. They think often it is “cute”.
I would feel like a heel to say “No I won’t” when I could just as easily say, “I will try as I always do to do everything I can for you dear”
Whether my parents did or didn’t for me.
I was always truthful with my kids when it came to money. We did not make a lot of money. Growing up they didn’t get what other kids got and they noticed it. But they came to realize that we could have chosen to have fewer kids and then some would have had more.They actually took pride that we had five kids which now is a large family. In my childhood that was a small family (rural Catholic community). I did what I could for them, they saw that and again took pride that in reality they each got through college on their own. They talk about it today.
Well done by you, your wife, and each child!
My husband and I footed the entire bill so that our 3 children could attend an Ivy League school. We have also funded a 529 account for our only grandchild; she should be able to attend any school she gets into. That said, I don’t agree with those who argue that college is a right offspring can expect to have paid for, or with those who argue that family size should be limited so that parental support of higher education is possible.
Each family has its own unique values, and family size and how money is spent should reflect those values. There is no “right way” or one size fits all.
The bigger issue here is that Mr. Begley and his spouse did work to instill a value for education in his children.
I think your statement that grade school is more important than any other education is true and insightful. When our two sons were in grade school we got right on to any problems they were having with tutoring and other support. Both of them graduated from a top rated private college that only gave scholarships based on demonstrated financial need. So my wife and I paid full price. Our sons each graduated with about $5000 in student debt that was deferred until the oldest finished Medical School and the youngest finished Law School, both with very manageable debt. I regard the cost we paid for their college, and the help we gave them in graduate school, as the best investments we’ve ever made. I see our returns we paid for their educations coming back several times per year in the form of their earnings and independence. My wife and I then set as a goal to provide the equivalent of one year of costs at a public college or university for our four grandchildren. We’ve accomplished that. I’ve told our oldest grandson to bring his grandchildren to our graves some day and explain to them, “This is where the Empire started!”
I would add that if we are serious about STEM education, we really need to focus on interesting and creative science education in middle school. And real math. Focus on math at this age. Make it interesting. Track what each student needs help on and focus on improvement there.
Middle school was unimpressive where we live…but everything turned out okay for our three sons. They earned multiple degrees from solid colleges, two now have master’s degrees. All are working, saving, and enjoying life, not necessarily in that order. We footed undergrad and gave a little assistance for their advanced degrees. No debt for them or us and no financial aid. Youngest earned merit scholarships for all four years, so his out of state tuition was more affordable, but still hurt. 529 plans were implemented when they were toddlers. I funded them at the level of rent or a mortgage payment in the early years. Those plans saved the day!
We are doing the same for 11 grandchildren
This is Ken Begley and thanks so much for reading my article and all the thoughtful comments pro and con. It just delights me that someone has read my thoughts.
Here are a few more details in response to some of the questions.
We couldn’t rely on my parents or my grandparents to help put my children through school. My own parents had 9 children, 25 grandchildren and at present 34 great grandchildren.
My grandparents had even larger amounts of offspring and they were dead by the time my children were born. They all worked very hard and I had five uncles and my father in World War II at the same time. One spent 24 months in a POW camp. Later one was in Korea and another in Vietnam. Tough people and some went to work before going to high school.
I put myself through college by joining the military. My wife does not have a college degree.
We did not have money to pay their college education without borrowing vast sums of money and endangering our fiancial future. Yet we made just enough that our children would not qualify for non-merit aid. We had five children so I can’t really say what I would have done if I had fewer kids.
I told my eldest child that the best thing I can do is be financially strong enough that I don’t come back needing help from them when they are raising their children. She did understand that. Look at all the folks that are at retirement age and are in trouble.
I did work as a Student Financial Aid Director for a few years. It is great if you can pick an occupation that you enjoy and can support yourself and service your student loans later. Unfortunately, you can get a lot of degrees that don’t have jobs waiting for you or pay so little you can’t have a life. Then you end up doing something else anyway and still have the debt. Look at all the student loans that are in default right now.
Will what we did work for everyone? No. But it is amazing what you, or your children, can do when you have no choice.
Take care everyone, and again, thanks for reading my thoughts.
Nice article and nice response to comments.
Everyone has a different perspective on just about everything including paying for college, so be it.
Nobody in my family went to college, it wasn’t even mentioned in my household when growing up.
It took me until I got out of the army in 1969 when I was 26 to figure out I better get a degree. It took nine years and I can honestly say the degree was worthless, but I needed that BA to advance at work regardless.
That experience made me determined to do better for my children. They would go to college, have a typical college experience and to the maximum possible we would pay for it.
We took HELOC loans, a 401k loan, then remortgaged our house and used our investments to that point and worked a second job.
We gave up something, not sure what, but we saw it as an obligation. Now to the extent possible we are contributing modestly to college funds for our grandchildren.
I may be an outlier, but the way I see it helping family never ends.
You make it sound like helping one’s children out with their college expenses is an all-or-nothing decision. In view of the fact that you were able to retire at 60, I find it difficult to believe that you couldn’t have provided your children with some financial support without endangering your financial future.
Ken didn’t say parents shouldn’t. He described what they chose to do.
You make it sound like having five children was out of your control. It was not.
While I admire the work ethic that you instilled in your children, I agree with those who don’t share your belief that parents shouldn’t help their children with college expenses. The obligation to help one’s children with college expenses to the extent reasonably possible was first instilled in my family by my paternal grandparents who helped put three daughters through nursing school and my father through pre-med (the Navy paid for his medical school during WWII which he repaid by serving during the Korean War).
I view the sacrifices my grandparents made as comparable to the sacrifices that many low-income immigrants and non-immigrants make today to help their children live the American dream.
I realize I replied to the wrong comment. I should have replied here, to note that Ken didn’t say parents shouldn’t help their children with their college expenses. He described what he and his wife chose to do.
Nice article. While I disagree with much of it, I’m glad things turned out well for this gentleman and his children. The children are obviously bright with a strong work ethic.
But I suspect putting one’s self through college is more realistic in Kentucky than other states. Like New York or California.
My two daughters are graduates of public universities, and I gladly paid for it. We discussed that private universities were too costly, so we did set limits. I started saving when they were young, and paid the rest as we went. No debt.
I wanted them to focus on their studies and the fun parts of a college experience without the burden of paying their own way with zero help. They will work the rest of their lives.
They took minimal part-time jobs for extra cash, but nothing more. Both now employed, and doing well.
I also disagree with today’s obsession with STEM education (Science,Technology, Engineering and Math). Narrow and may inhibit the development of other important skills.
Yes, we need engineers, but equally important are entrepreneurs, salespeople, writers, good, communicators, etc.
If you had had two kids instead of five, would you have paid some or all the costs of college?
I have to say we DID pay for all our children’s undergraduate degree expenses.
We also started planning for those expenses from the moment each kid came home from the hospital.
We did so because OUR parents paid for OUR undergraduate degrees.
Yes, the total was in the low six figures.
And, yes, our children each received multiple academic scholarships from various groups.
Did we sacrifice for it?
Yes.
Was it worth it?
Yes.
Although our ‘motorhead’ son NOW says he gladly would have taken the money to buy a fancy sports car instead. 🙂
I wasn’t entirely clear from your story if you didn’t help your kids pay for college because you couldn’t or because you wouldn’t. Those are two different conversations.
But that aside, kids have different aptitudes going through school. I have two daughters. The first one was a great student like your kids—gifted programs, advanced classes, top grades and test scores. Went off to a top university at 17, got two master’s degrees. She also switched from humanities (history and creative writing) into a STEM field and is now gainfully employed.
The younger one struggled all the way through school. There was tutoring, there were tears. She went to community college after high school and almost was unable to transfer to a four-year school because of the Algebra II class she’d ducked in high school and had to take three times in college to get through. She is highly verbal and a talented musician, but she was never going to be an engineer no matter what those job prospects are. For that matter, I have a Ph.D and have had a successful academic career, but I struggled with math, too, and I was never, ever going to be an engineer.
My point is that some kids will thrive in the environment you describe (take all the hard classes, juggle a lot of activities and jobs) and some will fail and/or fall into unhealthy levels of stress and depression. I live in a highly educated university town and raised my kids here. A lot of parents push their kids hard, and the environment is very academic and competitive. The schools are high-powered and highly ranked. Kids hear it early and often that they’re a disappointment if they’re not rock stars—from teachers, from guidance counselors, from their peers. It was a great place for my firstborn to grow up. It was a difficult one for my younger daughter (though good in other ways).
I knew other kids in our town—my friends’ kids and/or my kids’ friends—who WERE great students and did all the things and went off to great colleges—and crashed and burned from so many years of trying to be perfect. Some came back home and finished college here, some never finished at all, and some fell into really dark places.
As parents, we need to help our kids find the path that is most suited to them, considering all the variables. It is possible to get into and complete college without being a star student. (I’m a professor and have seen many average students get degrees just through reasonable levels of commitment and effort.) It’s also possible, though harder, to have a successful life without college at all.
I appreciate your story and you obviously are and should be proud of your kids. I don’t think their/your path would work for every kid and family, though.
best response of the thread – so agree with everything BUT the comment below:
“It’s also possible, though harder, to have a successful life without college at all.”
I couldn’t disagree more. I think this is a HUGE problem in our society today. We desperately need and have a huge shortage of plumbers, electricians, HVAC pros, welders, and many other skilled tradespeople. The older ones are retiring and today’s generation thinks college is the only profitable path to a good life.
Skilled tradespeople can make high 5/6 figures a year easily – yet America continues to make kids feel like failures if college isn’t their chosen path.
A society full of nothing but keyboard commandos and paper pushers will be in big trouble.
If *everybody’s* kids were above average in academics, sports, or whatever…then *nobody’s* kids would be.
I totally agree with your approach here–flexibility is key. Parental mindsets regarding what would constitute a successful path for their children need to be flexible, sustainable, and changeable; a one-size-fits-all approach is likely to lead to huge disappointment for many (even well-meaning) parents and their children.
Couldn’t agree more. We need engineers, sure, but we need artists (writers, musicians, dancers, sculptors, etc.etc.), doctors, teachers and even lawyers just as much. Making “enough” is more important than making a “lot”.
what about mechanics? Plumbers? Welders? Why is working with one’s hands in a trade so ignored and disparaged when they pay so well? It’s been very frustrating to see the wasted potential the past few decades as more and more kids are pushed into useless, expensive college degrees while trades are desperate for help.
My husband is a lawyer (and a talented singer-songwriter), so I’m glad you threw that one at the end of the list!
Ken – nice parenting story and congrats. Getting kids through college and into positions of long-term employability is one of the most comforting legacies parents can help facilitate with their children. The rest is up to them.
I’ll get some red down ticks on this comment, but it’s a hot button with me. You have five children, kids are farm animals.
Nevertheless, your story is of good fortune and a bit unique in many ways, especially an interest in a STEM education.
Our four children all took advanced courses, were good students, worked during college and each summer, applied for every available scholarship. Each graduated with a minimum amount of loans, about $10,000 as a recall.
We promised our children upon entering high school they could go to any college where they were accepted. We had 1,2 or 3 in college for ten years in a row.
It’s a reason I didn’t retire until age 67.
I’ve re-read your comment a couple of times trying to figure out your first paragraph. I’ve concluded that you meant to say that kids are not farm animals. Is that it? You are implying Ken treated his kids like farm animals because he didn’t approach their post-secondary education the way you approached your children’s?
If I am reading that incorrectly, I apologize. If I’m not, and if you are truly interested in feedback about the way you present things, that paragraph is illustrative.
“Kids” are goats. Children are children, that’s all.
oh geez…another word that’s now suddenly offensive. It never ends.
On HumbleDollar, children can be kids. And the editor’s decision is final!
Not at all. Just not a nice term.
I don’t understand “you have five children, kids are farm animals”. What does that mean? What is the hot button issue?
The hot button is it is disrespectful (IMO) calling you children kids. It like calling your wife your old lady.
I do not view using “kids” as disrespectful, its use has become colloquial and slides off your tongue! I agree with you on avoiding it in formal writing when possible. That’s what my English teacher taught me, so I understand your stance. Now it’s so commonly used, I rarely think twice about it, just like using contractions!
PS the editor is English and knows more about usage than you and I combined. I say we roll with his decision!
That is clearly your formal opinion. The first definition of kid in various dictionaries states kid is a child, though it is considered informal usage. Goat is the second or third definition for kid.
Indeed it is my opinion.
I (born in England) thought “kids” for “children” was standard American English. I don’t object to “old lady” as much as do “my bride” used of a woman you’ve been married to for decades. Makes it sound like she never grew up.
My husband sometimes says “my bride” while talking with our friends. It’s a form of endearment in our case, I never mind. I’m also “the boss” & “the family’s CFO” when we’re around our home’s contractors. I’m rarely Mrs. Miller, except when the children were in school.
“Wifey” and “Pooch” are usually when he wants something! My friends & relatives call me Stacey (or Stace!) Don’t get me started on our sons’ or dogs’ nicknames!
As if “my bride” isn’t bad enough , I sometimes hear “the bride”, occasionally even multiple times in a conversation . Her name is never used.
I’ve never heard a woman refer to her husband as “my groom.”
Also my bride sounds a little hoakie
I did misread. My apologies.
No down votes, but you are a very difficult person to understand. Its not your message, just the way its presented…..
I’d sure like to learn more about that, truly.
Why the negative? I just wanted your view on the way I present things.
Pretty impressive, Ken. I’m sure the kids are reading Dad’s article—good job, everyone. Remember what worked as your own children prepare for their future.