working in a coal mine, going down down down

i am sick of smug parenting (and since when did parenting become a verb?) magazines, books and newspaper articles with smug 40-something mommies rhapsodizing about how they're so glad they waited until they were "financially secure" before they popped out their kidlets.

i, too, am an old broad: 42 at last count. my husband is slightly younger, but still over the 4-0 marker. we are not smug (well, about our financial situation, anyway).

we're not in dire straits by any means, or else i would not be a stay-at-home-mom-slash-freelance-writer-and-editor. but from where i sit today, it seems as though we're probably going to have to work until we die (whee! hi, honey!). right now, we're facing the early stage, chicken-and-egg conundrum common to many families: we moved from a 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom mortgage to a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom mortgage because we need more room for the kids...right at the same time i took a powder from the work force to stay home with the kids.

when the kids are both in school, i'll be able to work more to pay for the unholy expenses of child rearing i see my friends grappling with: camps, sports, etc.

and then, when we hit our 60's, we'll pack the girls off to college.

so i don't quite know who these financially secure 40ish new mommies and daddies are. frankly, i don't know a whole lot of parents of any age for whom money is not at least a niggling concern, if not cause for a full-blown panic attack. we're all gonna be working til we die.