$250,000 Child?

An interesting topic came up today between my sister and I as we do our daily back and forthing of emails during work hours.

We were discussing children: what we think of our friends becoming mothers lately, genetics from parents, who's going to look like whom, when we want to start having kids, etc. ... and about having the finances to start a family. Mandy brought up that she saw on Dr. Phil that by the time a kid reaches 18, that it would have cost his parents around $250,000. That's a lot, yes.. if true.. but I retorted that 18 years is a long time and costs can be spread pretty evenly throughout that time. Of course, I personally don't plan on spoiling our kids with expensive win-overs and that things don't come for free, but most other expenses are kinda justifiable by the fact that they're alive, healthy and happy.

There probably is a good and better time to start a family, financially, but I think raising one is do-able on any budget. My dad, for example, grew up in a family of 7, with the only income being from my grandpa's dry cleaning business. They didn't have many luxuries, but they had what they needed, and a family of 7 is a lot to provide for.

Honestly.. I tend to believe that the family who has a bit less can actually get more out of life (of course it depends on the type of family and how they deal with such situations). I was just thinking about the Allstate commercial that says "The best things in life don't cost much.." with the examples of things like, playing Scrabble on a Saturday night, or "it's not the size of your TV that matters, but who's around it." I really like that ad. I would live by those ideas.

I think when things aren't so easy; in situations where everything isn't just given to us (not that we shouldn't avoid making life hard for ourselves), it presents more opportunity for growth, creativity, and character-building. I'd want my family to be like this because those are the characteristics that make awesome people.

Although I do tend to be frugal, or over-frugal, I think that focusing too hard on "geez look how much these dang kids are costing me!!" is not a good way to love your family. I'm sure that I would personally have my moments where my previous whims of being so frugal will challenge that notion once we are sentenced to life with children, ha.. but I'd like to think that loving them would be more important than worrying about finances to the degree of calculating how much they cost during their lifetime.