The Price of a Child
The government recently calculated the cost of
raising 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. For those with kids, that figure leads to wild fantasies about
all the things we could have bought, all the places we could have traveled, all
the money we could have banked if not for (insert child's name here). For
others, that number might confirm the decision to remain childless. There's no way to put a price tag on:
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 $24.44 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's just the
opposite.
* Feeling a new life move for the first time and seeing
the bump of a knee rippling across your skin.
* Having someone
cry, "It's a boy!" or shout, "It's a girl!," then hearing the baby wail and
knowing all that matters is it's healthy.
* Counting all 10
fingers and toes for the first time.
* Feeling the warmth of fat
cheeks against your breast.
* Cupping an entire head in the palm
of your hand.
* Happily hearing a *da da* or *ma ma* during all the
cooing and gurgling.
What do you get for your
$160,140?
* Naming rights. First, middle and
last.
* 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 fingerprint, 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's 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 sliver,
filling the 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, 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 no college can match.
* In
the eyes of a child, you rank right up there with God. You have the power to
heal a boo-boo, scare away 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.