The government recently calculated the cost of
raising child from
birth to18 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 Jason! For others, that number might
confirm the
decision to remain childless.
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.
There's no way to put a price tag on:
* 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.
* Making out da da or ma ma from all the cooing and gurgling.
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 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.
For 1500.00 dollars you can have a D&C or take a RU 486 pill and
miss it all.
I performed this study in the early '70's for my Community Lab Class as a senior in High School. Community Lab was an alternative class to the normal Problems of Democracy class designed to prepare one for real life. My team calculated all the costs and at that time (ready for this?), the cost to raise a child to the tender age of 18 was slightly over $42,000. Now that's what I call inflation! Oh, and by the way...we didn't even contemplate an alternative to ending a pregnancy. I guess (even though abortion was prevalent) we weren't so outspoken about it and it was still considered taboo. The value of God's gift of life has been devaluated.... just as the dollar has!