Wow. That's a lot of money, but thinking of the yearly cost of food and clothes, plus college, it sounds about right. Since that's an average, it makes me think of the privileged kids who are above the average and especially those children who get below the average cost spent on them, sometimes much less. I know people who probably have spent close to that much on beer in the same amount of time.
Some of the comments on the Yahoo Facebook wall (where I saw the link to the article) were - as usual - getting heated. Some people were saying their children's love was worth much more than that while others said they were never going to have children. Of course - as usual- there were self-righteous types who were replying to the anti-having children posters telling them they shouldn't have children if they were going to have an attitude like that. Good grief, they just SAID they weren't having children; why rake them over the coals for not wanting children? I have a sneaking suspicion that the critics would never admit they wish they hadn't had children and were jealous of those who weren't. They're probably the ones who shouldn't have had children.
I had a friend who told his mother he wasn't having children. (and since he was gay, I figured it would've been a safe bet) She told him "But who will take care of you when you're old?"
"I dunno." he replied. "But I ain't havin' nobody stick ME in a nursing home."
Nothing wrong with not having children, but I personally think *some* people who have children shouldn't have them and/or they have too many. It's still a free country - for the time being - so pop those kids out like your womb was a Pez dispenser, I don't give a damn. Just keep them quiet in restaurants, that's all I ask. Oh yeah, and keep 'em off my lawn, too.
Reminds me of an old joke:
A traveling salesman was making calls in the back woods and stopped at a primitive cabin where at least a dozen kids were playing outside in the dirt. He could tell the family was very poor and it wouldn't be any use in trying to sell them something, but he really needed to use the bathroom so he asked the harried looking woman if he could use their facilities. Shifting a baby from one arm to the other, she pointed towards an outhouse in the back yard.
The salesman walked toward the privy and opened the door, but as he looked down into the hole, he could see a young child struggling in the muck, the head barely visible. He ran back to the front, frantically screaming for someone to help the child. The woman followed him to the outhouse, looked down in the hole at the child and to the salesman's horror, put a leg into the opening and with her foot pushed the child's head below the surface.
"My God!" exclaimed the salesman."Why did you do that?"
Without batting an eye, the woman replied "I reckon it'd be easier to make another one than it would be to clean that one up."
