During our first week of being parents, we received a card from an Olson Family friend congratulating us on the newest addition to our family. Inside that card, she wrote: I know that you two will be awesome parents! Have fun.
I wondered, for a second, how she knew that we would be awesome parents. Was it a fellow mother's intuition? (Granted, we had both wanted this baby more than anything in the world and had spent the better part of the past year nourishing my body so that we could spend our lifetimes nourishing our child.)
Tucked inside of her card, was a printout called "The Price of Children". We sat on the couch and read it together, finding it touching. By the end, we were both choked up and had tears in our eyes. It was the perfect thing for us to read... being new parents and all. And being that we both had the same sentimental reaction to these words, I'm thinking she was right: WE WILL BE AWESOME PARENTS!
Here's what it said:
This is just too good not to pass on to all. Here is something absolutely positive for a change. 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 nice.
The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140.00 for a middle income family. Talk about price shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition.
But $160,140.00 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into:
- $8896.66 a year,
- $741.38 a month,
- $171.08 a week.
- 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 $160,140.00?
- 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 wonders 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 $160,140.00, 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,
- 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 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 hit,
- first basket
- 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 to teach religion, 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 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. This is quite a deal for the price!
Love enjoy your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren! It's the best investment you'll ever make!
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