Rosemead Kiwanis Club

"Serving the Community Since 1945"

FAX OF

LIFE

The Fax of Life

A weekly inspiration, courtesy of the Kiwanis Club of Scott's Valley

(distributed free by the Kiwanis Club of Rosemead, CA - rosemeadkiwanis.org )

April 5, 2009 Volume 14, Number 26

The Price of Children

You may think you've seen this before, but read on... It has a different twist.

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 price 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

$171.08 a week

$24.24 a day

A mere $1.01 an hour

Still, you might think the best financial advice is; don't have children if you want to be 'rich.' Actually, it is just the opposite.. What do 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

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 you never have to grow up. You get to:

finger-paint

carve pumpkins

play hide-and-seek

catch lightning bugs

never stop believing in Santa Claus

You have an excuse to:

keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh

watch Saturday morning cartoons

go to Disney movies

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 a mere $24.24 a day, 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 a 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 in history to witness the:

Fist smile,

First step,

First word,

First date,

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 and great grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human development that no college can match.

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under 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 one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost. That is quite a deal for the price.

Contributed by Melanie Lopez

Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time. All of its Clubs are independently-run community service groups.

The Kiwanis Club of Scott's Valley normally meets at the Heavenly Café in Scott's Valley, CA, on Wednesdays at 7 am - see the Scott's Valley Kiwanis website @ http://svkiwanis.org for details; The Kiwanis Club of Rosemead normally meets on Thursdays at 12:10 in Rosemead, CA - see the Rosemead Kiwanis website @ http://rosemeadkiwanis.org for confirmation and directions. Visitors are welcome to join meetings of either club anytime.
There is no charge to anyone for receiving the "Fax," which today is circulated by e-mail rather than literally by FAX. If you have been encouraged in any way by the message, pass it on by saying something encouraging to someone else during the week. To subscribe to the free weekly RKC Reporter, of which the "Fax" is an attachment, simply email kcrosemead@aol.com,
Neither the Scott's Valley or Rosemead Kiwanis Clubs make any representations as to the accuracy of quotes or actions attributed to named individuals; material selected for the Fax of Life comes from a variety of sources and is chosen based solely on its presumed inspirational value to readers.