Wednesday, December 13, 2006
The high cost of children...
How often do you get complaints (or at best, comments) on the high cost of child care? I don't deny that it is a considerable expense to keep children in a quality child care environment, but there is little about children that is not a considerable expense...
The U.S. Department of Agriculture in its 2005 report, Expenditures on Children by Families, estimates a child will cost a middle-income family more than $190,000 by the time he or she is 17.
That sounds like a lot to me, but when I think about several thousand dollars paid for medical expenses when my children were born, the cost of baby food and diapers... Experts estimate you'll change six to 10 diapers a day, or 2,000 to 3,000 a year. Over a three-year period, disposable diapers can cost you more than $2,700, according to Consumer Reports. Then consider that they outgrow their clothes every few months.
And as they get older, it doesn't get any better... The size 14 basketball shoes that only last about 6 months... the car, when they turn 16... the gas to keep the car running... considerable amounts of junk food for the teenage psyche... and then there is the major expense of college.
Yep, $190,000 by age 19 may be tad low. So how can parents complain about the $100 to $150 per week for quality child care when this is one of the most important times in your child's development? I think that we should gladly invest in our children. They'll probably be the ones taking care of us when we get old and what do we want them to learn about "quality of care"?
