The Cost of Kids

[sweetpea1217]

The government calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $230,000 for a middle income family. That doesn't even count college tuition. But $230,000 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into $12,778 a year, $1065 a month, or $266 a week which is a mere $38 a day. Thats about $1.59 an hour. Still, you might think the best financial advice says don't have children if you want to be "rich." It is just the opposite. What do you get for your $230,000.

Naming rights,---first, middle, last!

Giggles under the covers every night.

More love than your heart can hold.

Butterfly kisses and velcro hugs.

A hand to hold, usually covered with jam.

A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites, building sand castles, and skipping down the sidewalk in the pouring rain.

Someone to laugh yourself silly with no matter what the boss said or your stocks performed that day.

You get to fingerpaint, carve pumpkins, play hide-n-seek, catch lightning bugs, and never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh, watching saturday morning cartoons, going to Disneyland, and wishing on stars.

You get to frames rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refridgerator 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.

You get to be a hero just for retrieving a frisbee off the garage roof, taking the training wheels off the bike, removing a splinter, filing a wading pool, coaxing a wad of chewing 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 history to witness the first step, first word, first bra, first date, and first time behind the wheel.

You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren.

You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.

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, grownd them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.

[erei28]

Feb. 23, 2009 at 10:05 PM

they are so worth the cost!

[megan24226]

Feb. 23, 2009 at 10:07 PM

How very true!!