Posted on 12/20/2001, 1:09:17 PM by MHGinTN
How 'bout this one to pull at your heart strings.
Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, fellow Freepers! ... Remember, it's supposed to be a birthday party celebration. Happy Birthday, Jesus!!
THE COST OF KIDS
I have seen repeatedly the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards listed this way. It's nice, really nice!!
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 sandcastles, 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 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 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 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.
ENJOY YOUR KIDS AND GRANDKIDS.
[I would add only one thing more: the cost is really low when you consider that for the first three years or so, you have the rare privilege of being around someone who has recently been in God's presence ... and come to this place to be with you! Thank You, Lord!]
As much as you give.
patent
Daughter's a solid B student in 8th grade--probably good enough to get in, not good enough to get in on scholarship. Since hubby and I are "evil top two-percenters", there's no possibility of getting meaningful financial aid of any kind. So we've been saving for college since the day she was born. We thought we were all set (even after the stock market tanked) after 13 years of saving and investing--until Notre Dame came up. LOLOLOL--back to the drawing board!!!
LOL, for all I know she'll change her mind in her senior year and decide to go to beauty school to "do hair."
Yep, kids are great. Am hugely looking forward to taking the brood of four and the spouse to see "The Fellowship of the Ring" this weekend.
You (and she) might find it a problem that the student population is primarily Evangelical, though. Not that there's any hostility toward Catholics (at all); and, there is a Cardinal Newman Society on campus.
I thank God and my lucky stars for her--there's a lot of girls her age are already into smoking, sneaking out of the house at night, sex, etc.
Back to the subject: Did that $160,000 include the cost of paying for a wedding? If not, add another $10,000 to $20,000--LOLOLOLOL.
Dan
OTOH, my 13 year old is ploughing delightedly through the Lord of the Rings trilogy (only half of the last volume, Return of the King, to go) so he can finish the whole thing before seeing first installment of the movie.
Here's a crosswalk.com commentary on LOTR: 'Lord of the Rings' has ring of the Christian Lord .
I would add only one thing more: the cost is really low when you consider that for the first three years or so, you have the rare privilege of being around someone who has recently been in God's presence ... and come to this place to be with you! Thank You, Lord!
Thanks my FRiend.
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