The Price Of Children

I received this in an email and thought I should share it with you.

The Price Of Children

The government recently calculated the price of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 (of course, if they were including sending your child to a Jewish day school and high school they would need to add about another $130,000) for a middle-income family.

But $160,140 isn’t so bad if you break it down. It translates into $8,896.66 a year which is $741.38 a month or $171.08 a week. A mere $24.24 a day! Just over $1 an hour.

Still, you might think that the best 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! Glimpses of G-d every day. Giggles under the cover 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 no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

You get to finger paint, play hide and seek, catch lightning bugs, and reread the books of your childhood. For $160,140 you never have to grow up.

You have an excuse to frame rainbows, hearts and flowers under refrigerator magnets.

You get to receive handprints set in clay and cards with backward letters. For a mere $24.24 a day, there is no greater bang for the buck!

You get to be a hero just for retrieving a Frisbee off of a garage roof, taking the training wheels off of a bike, removing a splinter, filling a wading pool, coaxing a wad of gum out of hair.

You get a front row seat for the first step, the first word, the first tooth.

You get to be immortal – to get another branch 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 and communications that no college can match.

In the eyes of the child, you rank right up there under G-d. You have all the powers to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits – so that one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost. That is quite a deal for the price!

Love and enjoy your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren!!! It is the best investment you will ever make!!!

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Now, that we have focused on the joys of children, it is vital to focus on the responsibility of parenthood. If I could give one piece of advice for raising children it is to deny them something at least once a day. Life is tough. There are no free passes. If you don’t want selfish, indulging, whining offspring who are always looking for another high or excitement, then deny them something once a day. No one gets everything his or her way. Kids need to know that there are disappointments and difficulties and learn how to handle them.

The joys of parenthood are enormous, but so are the heartaches. Not being able to be there when they fail at something, when some young man or woman breaks their heart, when they have a fight with their best friend. All you can do is watch, and wait.

Children are the greatest gift that G-d can send to a couple. Enjoy them when they are with you, cherish each moment and remind them that your love for them is endless.