Mother, Can You Spare a Dime...or a Hundred?
Do you know the average amount on school supplies a parent spends per year per child? I’d venture to guess we spend 1/10 of our income on all the accoutrements required for a child’s daily life in the classroom. Apart from the traditional school supplies, we’re obliged to pay for extra curricular accessories that go well beyond the realm of reading, writing and ‘rithmetic. The bottom line: Kids ain’t cheap.
Just last week I found myself plunking down a pretty penny for my son’s soccer uniform. We held off for an entire season before dishing out the dough required for his custom-made training attire. We ordered an extra big size to be sure we get our money’s worth. Sheesh! We don’t spend that much on groceries in a week.
It’s not only the uniforms and school supplies that gouge our budget. Let’s talk school excursions, shall we? Now that the fair weather has arrived in Germany, the children are also invited to various eccentric places such as thousand year old castles and animal parks with state-of-the-art kiosks crying for our children’s allowance. The entrance fees are typically minimal, but the boat and bus rides to get there are not.
“That’ll be 13€ (15 US dollars) for gas and miscellaneous expenses, please!” The note from the kindergarten teacher dripped with false flattery.
The very next day, my daughter came home with two additional notes from her second-grade teacher.
“I forgot to give this to you last week. Both are due tomorrow. Exact change required.” I dipped into my pocket again to draw out another sixteen fifty.
Where exactly does the tax revenue flow? We pay an absurd 45% in income taxes for things like schools and roads. If you add the 10% we pay for our children’s leisure time activities, we’ve got a crummy 45% left to pay for the electric bill and some groceries.
The other day my husband asked me the most poignant question in our collective sixteen years while watching our son man the goal in a heated contest between two equally matched soccer teams.
“We bust our hump all week…and for what? We’ve got nothing left,” he stated, chewing on a piece of straw he’d picked from the dried out field.
I peered over to our son who was staring intently at his opponents. His oversized man gloves met his calves. The bulky goalie shirt made his slight build appear twenty pounds heavier. Our giggling daughter scampered after her best friend on the sidelines. They both looked proud and strong and very much alive.
“We’ve got this,” I said, sweeping my hand across the bucolic scene before us. My husband lowered his hat an inch to ponder that thought. Something told me he agreed it was all worth it, too.
The cost of raising children? Astronomical. The look on their faces as they discover the world on our penny? Priceless. If you doubt me, take a kid to the circus and watch his face unfurl like a rose in the morning dew. In the end, you might have nothing left in your pocket. But in your heart, you will have captured the world.
Excerpt from Christine's biweekly newsletter, Powerful Families, Powerful Lives.
I'd love to read .... It exemplifies what Martin Seligmann, the father of Positive Psychology has been touting for over a decade -- focusing on the strengths of people versus their weaknesses. Qualities such as positive inquiries, mindfulness and other tools were used to acknowledge individuals' strengths to effect major change.
. When asked why, they couldn't really identify it.
