I have
repeatedly seen 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 really
neat!!
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 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
* 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, & warm cookies.
* A hand to
hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate
* A partner for
blowing bubbles, flying kites, building sand castles, 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,
* 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,
* 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 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 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 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!
