Count the Rewards

The United States government recently calculated the cost  of raising a child from birth to 18 years and came up with US$160,140 (RM608,532) for a middle-income American family. It doesn't even cover college fees. That figure leads to wild fantasies about all the money we could have banked in if not for our children.

US$160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into US$8,896.66 (RM33,806) a year, or US$741.38 (RM2,817) a month, or $171.08 (RM650) a week. That's a mere $24.44 (RM93) a day!

Still, you might think the best financial advice says don't have children if you want to be "rich". It is just the opposite.

So what do you get for your money?

Naming 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 (usually covered with jam) to hold.

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 RM608,532: 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 excise to: Keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh, watch Saturday morning cartoons, go to Disney movies, and keep 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 letters written backwards for Father's Day.

For that amount, there is no greater bang for you ringgit. 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 history 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, communication, 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, patch a broken heart, 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.

From Starmag