Friday, May 11, 2007

MAY 11, 2007

CELINE DION WINNER
Congratulations to Marilyn Radley, the winner of our Celine Dion Las Vegas getaway. We called Marilyn this morning to give her the good news, and she gave us her heartwarming story. It turns out she is a cancer survivor who was going in for her final cancer treatment today. She was so excited to celebrate her improved health and was hoping she would win the trip. Congratulations, Marilyn (and she's a mom too, so Happy Mother's Day)!

THE COST OF KIDS
The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition! But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into $8,896.66 a year, $741.38 a month, or $171.08 a week. That's a mere $24.24 a day... or 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." It is just the opposite! Here's what you get for your $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.
*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 sandcastles, 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, you never have to grow up. You get to 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, and 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, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.

For $160,140, 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 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 gets treated to ice cream regardless. You get a front row seat to witness the first step, first word, first bra, first date, and 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. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, and communications that no college can match.

Happy Mother's Day.