The Cost of Children

THE COST OF RAISING A CHILD:

I found the following to be just too good not to pass this along.

The government has recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to age 18 and came up with the amount of $160,140.00 for a middle income family. Wow! Talk about sticker shock! And that doesn't even include the cost of college.

But, the $160,140.00 really isn't so bad when you break it down. It translates into:

$8,896.66 a year, $741.38 a month, $171.08 a week, a mere $24.24 a day, or just a little over $1.00 an hour.

Still, you might think that the best financial advice is: "Don't have children if you want to be rich." But actually, just the opposite is true. Here is what you get for your $160,140.00:

*Naming rights, First, Middle and Last;
*Glimpses of God every day;
*Giggles under the covers every single night;
*More love than your heart could ever possibly hold;
*Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs;
*Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies;
*A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly, peanut butter, 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 $160,140.00, you never have to grow-up, and you get to:

*Finger-paint;
*Carve pumpkins;
*Play hide-and-seek;
*Catch lightening bugs, and never have to stop believing in Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy.

You will 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, hand prints 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 of the 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 get treated to ice cream anyway.

You get a front row seat to the making of 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 are lucky, a long list of limbs and twigs listed in your obituary, called grandchildren and great-grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college or university 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 and boogie men from under the bed and hiding in the closet, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground a naughty child 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 cost.

LOVE AND ENJOY YOUR CHILDREN, GRANDCHILDREN & GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN, IT IS THE BEST INVESTMENT YOU CAN EVER MAKE!!!