Day 1: Middle-Class Moms wake up with wrinkles because they cannot afford Botox.

Today I woke up with wrinkles.  I am 98.75% confident they were not there yesterday.  I'm also pretty sure I could label the gross long wrinkle across my forehead STRESS and the little wrinkle above it WORRY.  Unlike those in the socioeconomic class above me, I cannot financially afford to run off to the local dermatologist to seek out Botox treatments.  No, I have to wear them across my forehead like battle scars...battle scars of life...

While on the subject of lack of money, I often wonder if my middle-class comrades realize we are the working poor.  As middle-class college students it was necessary to take out loans to pay for an education because we were not poor enough to qualify for assistance and not rich enough to pay cash.  We were assured that our college degree would lead to gainful employment that would more than pay for our student loans it would buy us houses, cars and college funds for our children.  We graduated college, found jobs and bought houses, cars and college funds, then SPLAT!!!  We were all standing around wondering,"What is that foul smelling substance that just hit that fan over there??  Wouldn't it figure, just when we dug ourselves from the middle-class trench and were sitting on the green grassy edge of the lower upper-class there was a mud-slide, and we fell back in.  Now we are struggling.  We as a social class are lucky to have jobs even with college degrees.  We as a social class cannot pay our student loans.  We as a social class have been forced to clean out our children's college funds to pay for the mortgage, groceries, heat and electric.  (I'm aware that this theory does not apply to all).  Wouldn't you almost rather be poor! Then the state would pick up part of the bill...

Ending on a good note...if we have hit bottom economically there is no place to go but up.  I will keep clawing and scraping my way out of the middle-class trench to show my children that you never give up.  Even when the odds are not in your favor.  Also, if wrinkles are the battle scars of life, I will wear them proudly.  Even if they are attributed to stress and worry...they are proof that I went to battle against stress and worry, that I fought in that battle against stress and worry and that I won...  So can you! Hang in there middle-class wear your wrinkles like a new Coach bag!