The
Real Cost of Kids
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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 says don't have children if you want
to be "rich." It is just the opposite. What do your 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 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 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, catch lightning bugs, and never stop believing
in Santa Claus. You have an excuse to keep: reading
the Adventures of Pooh and 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 the 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 history to witness the first step, first word, first bra, 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. 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 with God. You
have all the power to heal a booboo, 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.
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