WJR Radio in Detroit carries the Dr. Laura syndicated call-in show. Although I rarely hear the program itself, I do hear the short clip that WJR runs in the morning to promote “here’s what Dr. Laura is talking about.”

Today’s morning clip was from a dad who was seeking advice from Dr. Laura as to whether his wife should stay home to care for their young child, rather than go out in the workforce so they can afford a more expensive house.

If you listen to Dr. Laura on a regular basis or know much about her opinions, you know she favors having a parent at home to raise young children rather than both parents working out of the home.

The caller said some of his friends have told him, “The house is an investment that’s going to send our kid to college.”

Well, you can imagine what Dr. Laura said.

And here’s my reality check: my house is not my kid’s college fund.

It was never in the plan to do that.

Our home is part of our retirement plan, because my husband and I expect to have a fully paid off house before or about retirement time. We’ve noticed that retirees who don’t have a house payment or rent have a lot more flexibility with their budgets in their senior years.

But even if we had intended to use the home as a college fund, it would be impossible for us to do so. We bought our home in 2004. Even though we had a down payment and got a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, area real estate values have fallen so much there is no equity in the house.

When I did the math on college financial aid papers this spring, we realized that the house is likely worth less than we owe.

Now, it may be of interest to this discussion for you to know my daughter is at St. Mary’s College at Notre Dame, Ind. It’s a private women’s college with an excellent reputation and yes, it has a higher tuition bill than many Michigan colleges.

How can I afford to send my daughter to a private college out of state? We’re not made of money.

We followed all the application deadlines for financial assistance and put together this plan: four-year partial scholarship from her college, local scholarships, grants, federal student loans, work-study and summer jobs. I also signed a Parent PLUS loan to cover some of the expenses for her freshman year. (Hopefully, my loan totals won’t be too bad by the time she graduates.)

By the way, while I do respect a lot of Dr. Laura’s opinions, and it seems to be good advice in the situation her caller described, I’ve never had the financial luxury of being a stay-at-home mom.

I was working full-time and my first husband was going to college / working part-time when the daughter was born.

We divorced when she was a year old. Then I spent about four years raising her as a single mother who was working full time.

My second husband has, at times, been more frugal and cautious about money than I am. This is a good character trait because he has never made a lot of money either in his former career as a radio announcer or in his current work at an auto supplier factory.

So my newspaper job has been my family’s main paycheck all these years.