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Three Kids? You Showoffs
Washington Post ^ | Apr. 6, 2008 | Pamela Paul

Posted on 04/07/2008 1:01:59 PM PDT by Alouette

My husband and I are getting ready to do what many couples in these brink-of-recessionary times would consider unthinkable. No, we're not buying a Martha's Vineyard retreat or planning a month in St. Bart's or eco-decorating our house.

We're planning to have a third child.

What shocks people, when we tell them, isn't the thought of hauling three kids onto a place for a vacation, or even the idea of coming home every night to a houseful of runny noses and homework assignments. What gets them is the sheer financial audacity. Raising kids today costs a fortune. Last month, the Department of Agriculture estimated that each American child costs an average of $204,060 to house, clothe, educate and entertain until the age of 18.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: children; lifestyle; parenting
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I have 9 kids, that makes me a super showoff.
1 posted on 04/07/2008 1:01:59 PM PDT by Alouette
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To: 1st-P-In-The-Pod; 2ndDivisionVet; A_Conservative_in_Cambridge; af_vet_rr; agrace; Aiko; ...
FReepMail to be added or removed from this pro-Israel/Judaic/Russian Jewry ping list.

Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.

2 posted on 04/07/2008 1:02:57 PM PDT by Alouette (Vicious Babushka)
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To: Alouette

If people waited until they could afford to have kids....there would be none


3 posted on 04/07/2008 1:03:54 PM PDT by Lucky9teen (Note to McCain: The voters are not united FOR you, they are uniting AGAINST Clinton/Obama)
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To: Alouette

I stopped at 4. I ran out of bedrooms.


4 posted on 04/07/2008 1:05:05 PM PDT by CougarGA7 (Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.)
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To: Alouette

Who are these people that think it takes millions of dollars to have 3 children. (Three? I don’t even remember having 3, because I had the 4th so quickly!)


5 posted on 04/07/2008 1:05:13 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("Everything is either willed or permitted by God, and nothing can hurt me." Bl. Charles de Foucauld)
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To: Alouette
I have 9 kids, that makes me a super showoff.

I will refrain from saying what that makes you.

6 posted on 04/07/2008 1:05:31 PM PDT by Phantom Lord (Fall on to your knees for the Phantom Lord)
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To: CougarGA7

Stack ‘em.


7 posted on 04/07/2008 1:06:44 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("Everything is either willed or permitted by God, and nothing can hurt me." Bl. Charles de Foucauld)
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To: Phantom Lord

It makes her an Icon, okay?


8 posted on 04/07/2008 1:07:12 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("Everything is either willed or permitted by God, and nothing can hurt me." Bl. Charles de Foucauld)
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To: Alouette
Last month, the Department of Agriculture estimated that each American child costs an average of $204,060 to house, clothe, educate and entertain until the age of 18.

That's 11336.67 per year, per child.

Does anybody know the basis of this claim, and whether or not it's BS?

9 posted on 04/07/2008 1:08:07 PM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: Alouette

ROFL at the vicious babushka doll!


10 posted on 04/07/2008 1:09:22 PM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: Alouette
Actually, a showoff cubed.
11 posted on 04/07/2008 1:09:58 PM PDT by wideawake (Why is it that those who call themselves Constitutionalists know the least about the Constitution?)
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To: Tax-chick

Kids aren’t that expensive until they reach elementary school age, really.


12 posted on 04/07/2008 1:10:48 PM PDT by RockinRight (Supreme Court Justice Fred Thompson. The next best place for Fred.)
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To: wagglebee; NYer; Coleus

ping


13 posted on 04/07/2008 1:10:50 PM PDT by Alouette (Vicious Babushka)
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To: Alouette

People look they are going to faint when I tell them I have five.


14 posted on 04/07/2008 1:11:06 PM PDT by HungarianGypsy
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To: Alouette
I am the mother of four. Grandmom of 9, with #10 due soon! :-)
15 posted on 04/07/2008 1:11:09 PM PDT by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are not stupid.)
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To: ArrogantBustard

Actually they base this nonsense on such things as how much the room your kid will take (suppose they factor in the opportunity cost of renting it out) as well as the average time a mother takes off a job — again, opportunity cost.

SO it isn’t really money you actually have — they just assume you’d be doing something else if you were not having kids. Bureaurocratic idiots if you ask me.


16 posted on 04/07/2008 1:11:24 PM PDT by Bushwacker777
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To: Alouette

I have a 21 year old, and a set of 19 yr old twins. I’m not only a show off... I did it with flair! :-)


17 posted on 04/07/2008 1:11:36 PM PDT by tiredoflaundry (High Maintenance Estrogen Bot........... look out :0))
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To: Phantom Lord
I will refrain from saying what that makes you.

It makes me a vicious babushka, OK?

18 posted on 04/07/2008 1:11:49 PM PDT by Alouette (Vicious Babushka)
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To: ArrogantBustard

A lot of that cost are costs the parents would have whether they had kids or not. The mortgage doesn’t go up if you have a kid. Food only costs marginally more till they get older. Clothing is a biggie though. Car seats, etc...


19 posted on 04/07/2008 1:11:54 PM PDT by RockinRight (Supreme Court Justice Fred Thompson. The next best place for Fred.)
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To: Alouette

My wife and I are exhausted with 3. I don’t know how you guys with more kids do it. Kudos to my folks who raised 6 of us.


20 posted on 04/07/2008 1:11:58 PM PDT by vpintheak (Like a muddied spring or a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way to the wicked. Prov. 25:26)
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