For the Parents!

[Fly2e]

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 tran slates 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 is don't have children if you want to be "rich."   Actually, it is just the opposite. What do you 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 jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites
* 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 or 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 a 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 and great 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 under 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.  That is quite a deal for the price!!!!!!!

Love & enjoy your children

[Hagar]

True if a tad too sloppy & sentimental for me I'm afraid.

You will find it's much better being a grandparent.

PS. [quote]You get a front row seat to history to witness the:

[xFLAMESx]

PS. Suppose it's a boy?

Then he's been a very bad boy?

From what I've seen from others, it's all very true
I still watch Saturday morning cartoons anyway!

[Woodlouse2002]

Better idea, keep the 160,000 and let wait for nephews and nieces.

[alrot]

That's why I can't buy a new computer,I have to be a mother & father to my boy ,yes ,when I try to save ,something new came out ...

[H]

You will find it's much better being a grandparent.

Isn't that usually accomplished by being a parent first?

8)

[ozzy72]

Normally I'd say that was the case H but there might have been an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine

[H]

Normally I'd say that was the case H but there might have been an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine

I knew there was a reason I stuck 'usually' in that inquiry. Hmn... seems there's been some doings with the time machine without the contracepitive; some of us seem to have become our own children. Of course, someone said we often have a second childhood at the end of our lives. I said, "I think I'll start early and forget about the end."

8)

[Politically Incorrect]

Im paying too much as is for kids who aren't mine, but belong to degenerate parents too lazy to work or teenagers who want "something to love" to afford my own

Opps, sorry for ruining the happy vibe going in this topic

$8,896.66 a year,  

That depends on how good your divorce attorney was.

[Hagar]

Isn't that usually accomplished by being a parent first?

Naturally. That's how I know it's even better the second time around.

[FLYING_TRUCKER]

Wonderful wonderful read Dave

If you don't mind I would like to add:
-hand painting those hard boiled eggs for Easter
-searching for eggs Easter Morning in the morning dew

-hand making those Halloween Costumes for school
and of course a different one for the big night
(always had to hide the shoe polish and stove black)

-picking dew worms off the wet grass for that early
fishing expedition (before the sun rises)

-decorating the Christmas Tree and the home
(if I had a penny for every time I moved a christmas
 bulb I would be a multi-millionaire)
-shopping for Mother, other brothers/sisters,
grandparents and trying to keep it a secret for weeks
-wrapping their gifts, everyone had to have their own
different coloured roll of gift wrap, ribbons and bows

-music lessons, and of course some can't play the same
instrument as their older brother or sister
-ooooohhhh my poor head, no wonder I spent so much
time in the hangar and barn

-their first funeral
(grandparents, uncles/aunts, cousins, friends, puppy
dog, kitty, gold fish)

-their first bug smasher ride

-their wedding (now I know why I have no money left)

-their first child, your first grandchild
and having a grandchild named after you or your wife

Just a few things that came to mind Dave after reading your post

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug

[Fly2e]

Great ad Doug!