How to find a job for a princess

I just learned that the college I attended will soon cost $70,000 a year. That means a degree will be nearly $300,000. How in the world could I possibly afford to get my daughter into alma mater?

I'd always believed that a parent's job is to put the kid through college, no matter what. But after divorce and a crippling recession, I don't have anywhere near the money needed. Am I letting the Little Girl down?

My hope is scholarships. She only finished first grade, but I'm already trying to figure which subjects she shines in, and how she can parlay those into a future.

She's great in writing and math, her teacher says. Writing really doesn't pay all that well, I've learned over the decades. So how about engineering? That sounds good, but is it ethical to try to steer a child toward a particular profession? And anyway, I think she still wants to be a princess for a living. Sometimes, she talks about being a newspaper reporter like me.

I remember my parents begging me to work in advertising, to which I smugly retorted that I wouldn't want to lie for a living. How obnoxious of me.

I want my daughter to live her own life, but I've looked at all those projections about future jobs, and I can see the potential growth is in the medical and engineering fields. Writing, not so much.

Even after nearly eight years of being a parent, I'm still not used to how much you worry about a child, and how afraid you get for her future.

Sometimes, I can't believe how hard parenting is. Or, that I actually volunteered for the gig.