The Real "Cost of a Child"

We read this on the show this morning, with this preface:  If you think this is cornball/hokey -- you don't have a kid.  Just wait, man.

The new figure is $207,060 to raise a child in America.  But the basis behind this essay (I don't know who wrote it, and I've seen different versions) remains accurate.

The Cost of a Child

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition. But$160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into:

* $8,896.66 a year,
* $741.38 a month, or
* $171.08 a week.
* That's a mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.

Still, you might think the best financial advice is don't have children if you want to be "rich." Actually, it is just the opposite. What do you get for your $160,140?

* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140, you never have to grow up. You get to:
* finger-paint,
* carve pumpkins,
* play hide-and-seek, and
* catch lightning bugs

You have an excuse to:
* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
* watching Saturday morning cartoons,
* going to Disney movies, and
* wishing on stars.
* You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.

For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for:
* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat to witness the:
* first step,
* first word,
* first date, and
* first time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match. In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God.

You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, So . .one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.

Comments

[Alice the Brit]

AMEN :)

Funny acecdote on the "do real men change nappies?"
[nappies=diapers]

We have 4 kids, we've (BOTH) changed MANY nappies!! Cos IMHO Real men/dads DO change them - Do you honestly think we/mums ENJOY changing them ???????????? NOT

This type of scenario has happened more than once in our household over the "nappy years" but the punch line was a 'one time in a million' that made me and hubby laugh so hard, we probably both wet ourselves and needed changing too!

OK so stinky 2 yr old is running around the room (I reserve the right to not reveal which of my 4 is was!!)... both of us know said child needs changing

Me, "how long are you going to ignore this? it's your turn"

hubs, "No, it's your turn"

Me, "Oh no it's not, I definitely changed the last poopy one"

hubs, "nope that was definitely me, not you, definitely not you, definitely definitely me" (yep rainman 2!)

this probably went back and forth with more absurd stuff, but basically "No it's YOUR turn"

Child stops running around the room, stops right between us both, stares as us back and forth with a cheeky glint in the eye and says,

"MY turn, *I* do it, I stinky"

Kids are priceless indeed :)

Alice,
Mum to the 4 M&M's, kids not Candy

[Josie]

Hi Brant, I'm Josie from Pompano Beach, i wanted to comment on that fire that happened in Ludwigshafen, Germany that a baby had to be thrown out of the window or else he would die among the smoke and flames, yesterday night i saw the pictures of the baby flying in the air to the officer's arms, i had to stop looking cause i almost cried, something similar happened in Tenesse too, jeez only talking about it makes my eyes water, i'm a new mother and just think that a decision like that had to be done it brakes my heart. Sometimes people may think that everything is going well and there aren't that many things to pray about, just thank then for everything and pray also that no one in the world has to, never or ever again, make a decision like that. Somewhere in my mind i pictured my 10 month old daughter in that boy's place and i cried and hugged her almost scared that that could ever happen to her. I pray for that baby and i hope that one day he knows that her parents loved him that much.
Thanks
p.s.: Love your show, and if that picture with a man holding an acordeon is you, you realy don't look like you sound... LOL

[REGINA]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

[regina]

amen sory about the last amen