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What They Don’t Tell You About The Real Cost of Raising Kids
There’s one major cost that’s never factored in
An article in USA Today says it costs $233,610 (not counting college tuition) to raise a child these days. This includes everything from labor and delivery to child care, food, clothing, shoes, illness, haircuts, diapers, sports, video games, and probably even a Jurassic Park Jeep Wrangler or Barbie’s Ultra Dream House.
But there’s one major cost that’s never, ever factored in. You never hear the experts mention costs incurred from the destruction of your home. Kids are a force that, once unleashed, have the capacity to annihilate anything in their path.
I don’t remember when I first noticed the insanely expensive increase in home repair costs, but it must have occurred around the time my children moved from infancy to mobility.
Shortly after my daughter could walk, she became an artist. She was supposed to be tucked in and sound asleep following thirty bedtime stories, but instead she got hold of my sharpies and produced a mural that spanned the entirety of her bedroom. The next morning, smiley faces, unicorns and dinosaurs pranced across the canvas of her walls as she, smudged with the residue of her efforts, grinned proudly.
