I have been giving this a lot of thought and it is just too good not to pass it along.  Hope you enjoy it.  Please let me know.

Reports are always talking about the expense of having children, but they never mention the benefits.  I think it is time we take a look at the benefits of children.

Here is what the government calculates the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 for a middle income family $160,140.00.  I know that is a price shock and it doesn’t even take in the cost of college.

Now let’s break it down a little so it doesn’t appear so bad.  If you want to do the math on this it comes down to a mere $24.24 a day.  Just over a dollar a day.  I don’t feel that that is too bad considering the happy benefits.

Let take a glimpse at the benefits, it is going to make you Happy.

What do you get for your $160,140.00?
Name 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 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. (This is happiness)

• You get to:
• Finger paint
• Carve pumpkins
• Play hide-and –seek.
• Catch lighting bugs.
• Never stop believing in Santa Claus.
• Be the Easter Bunny
• Spill your drink just to prove a point.
• Make snow angels and snowmen.

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 the small amount of $24.24 a day I don’t believe there are any greater bangs for your buck.

And by the way 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.
• Baking cookies.
• Fixing the toy that came apart.
• 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 are in the front row seat in history to witness:

• First steps.
• First’s word.
• First’s bra’s
• First dates.
• First time behind the wheel of a vehicle.

Besides all those benefits you become immortal. (Can you receive Happier News?)
You get another branch added to the 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.

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there with God.
You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed and in the closet, 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 Priceless. Did I miss anything?  Please leave your comments

Just me
Debbie Dee