Cost of raising a child

The cost of raising a child from birth to 18 was recently calculated to be $160,140. for a middle income family.  That doesn’t even touch the college tuition.

But $160,140 isn’t so bad if you break it down.  It translates into a $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.

If you think then that the best way to gain wealth is by not having children, think again.

What do you get for 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 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 $160,140.00 you never have to grow up.  You can 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, 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, cards with backward letters for today.

For $160,140 there is no better return.

You are a hero for retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof, take the training wheels off 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 regardless.

You get front-row seat to witness the first step, first word, first bra, first date, first time behind the wheel.

You become immortal.  Another branch is added to the family tree.  And, if you're lucky, limbs in your obituary called grandchildren.

You gain 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 with God.

You have all the power to heal a 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 and not count the cost.