Annals of Self-Awareness: Cristina Odone Edition

I don’t think “squeezed middle” means what the lovely Mrs Odone thinks it means:

For the past decade, our parental angst, which had my husband tossing and turning at night and me frantic about freelance work (I remember dashing out of hospital within three days of an emergency caesarian to write an article), could be summed up in two little words: school fees. For most of us “squeezed” middle-class parents, our little treasure’s education will set us back £30,000 a year (the average* private school bill). For many of us this means not only giving up on luxuries such as exotic holidays and theatre outings, but also remortgaging our home, going begging to the in-laws, and moonlighting and other small humiliations.

What keeps us going, as we tighten our belt and avert our eyes whenever a Travel Special supplement comes with the Telegraph, is the thought that our penny-pinching and hard-slogging are buying our children the best education in the world.