MOMMYFRIEND

Disclosure: The following is a sponsored post and the views and opinions expressed are my own.

Remember how when your kids were young, you’d catch a crazy glimpse of them looking like a mini-adult and think, “OMG, THEY LOOK SO OLD!” It’s a thing that usually happens after a haircut (amirite?), and it’s a thing that bursts and breaks your heart in an instant.

In panicked parent fashion, you launch into a quick math sesh to figure out just how many years you have left until your child turns 18. If time is on your side, you still have plenty of years to enjoy them at home. If graduation is knocking at your door, it kinda freaks you out. ASK ME HOW I KNOW.

My son is wrapping up his junior year of high school and it’s been nothing but AP exams, SATs, ACTs, and … (gulp!) college tours.

As exciting as this new chapter is, I can’t help but think (OK, worry) about how we’re going to afford college. Because after all the pomp and circumstance of senior proms, college acceptance letters, and graduation parties comes tuition bills.

And yes, we’ve planned as much as we could. But will it be enough? Is it EVER enough? What will our FAFSA EFC be? (If you don’t know these acronyms yet, one day you will). And how much will books + tuition + parking + room + board actually cost?