My daughter goes to private school with girls whose parents don't have to work. They're perfectly nice people but let's face it, they live on a different planet. They don't think anything of spending a thousand dollars or more on a dress for a 15-year-old. Now there are also girls there whose parents work--at professions that don't go on strike. Their daughters would show up in dresses in the $300-$400 range. In years past, my daughter and I had hit the discount malls and found her great dresses for under $100 and shoes for even less. That wasn't even an option.

But while we didn't have money, we did have time now that I wasn't working. So we went to Joanne's Fabrics. The $40 a yard silks and satins were out. But the Halloween fabrics were on sale. And with a couple of yards of black netting to dull the screaming red satin, some glass beads left over from a necklace she made when she was 6 and the patience to remake a pattern, we got a bubble-hemmed, beaded, strappy prom dress for under $30.

But was it good enough? Was I letting my daughter down?

The night of the dance I hid in a bus stop shelter outside the entrance to the ballroom and watched as the girls limped out in their spiked heels. And you know what? My daughter looked beautiful.