<p>Dad23,</p>
<p>You make great points, although your post broke my heart. You sound like a great dad - and that is what's going to carry you through, not the amount of money you spend on college.</p>
<p>I can sympathize after a couple of years of my kids thinking we are poor (!) because they go to a school where there are lots of super rich kids for whom there is no limit to anything they are allowed to spend money on. (They seemed to have gotten over that pretty early on, or they gave up mentioning it due the risk of making mom and dad extremely angry.)</p>
<p>Oddly, we have one kid who would spend us blind, and another who will write on the grocery list, "Peanut Butter (whatever is on sale)." </p>
<p>But, one family value instilled in me as a kid was: Parents deserve a life too. </p>
<p>All the talk of hardship, huge loans due the next 10 years, and maybe never retiring - no. Hopefully not us. Our kids are going to college on a "budget" and it's generous by any means ($25K per year limit) but NOT bottomless. If things hold out financially (and for that we pray, as we have had lay-offs too) we fully hope to be able to travel a year or two in Europe, downsize to a loft or something, and buy a small vacation home in the Adirondacks. And I don't feel guilty in the least about wanting that stuff, which for our income should be possible, but is not a no-brainer.</p>