For All of Those Parents Out There

An oldie but a goodie to hopefully make things a little brighter:

The Price of Children

The government previously calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to eighteen years old and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about price shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition. But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into $741.38 a month, $171.08 a week and 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. 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 and 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, watch Saturday morning cartoons, go to Disney movies and wish on stars. You get to frame rainbows, hearts and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, handprints set in clay for Mother's Day and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.

For a mere $24.24 a day, 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 in 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.

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 and enjoy your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It's the best investment you will ever make!