“How much does a kid cost?” This is a common question asked by young couples contemplating the expansion of their tribe.

If your answer is a specific amount in currency, adjusted for inflation, it would be an obstacle so intimidating that anyone who could do math would die out in one generation., since no one who knew how much it will cost would have children.

Yes, these little lives have big needs. Though it’s free to make a baby, the expenses quickly begin to mount on it’s birthday, and escalate every birthday after that, which is why we buy them gifts they won’t want a year from now: to remind us that it’s time for the next cost adjustment.

It starts with the hospital fees to safely get the tike into the expensive part of the world, car seat to get the our new cargo home, diapers ever 3 hours or so, periodic shots to prevent polio and other frightening diseases, occasional doctor’s visits (usually therapy for the mom who is going insane from sleep deprivation), and clothing that will be outgrown in 3 weeks, and a cot that will be dispensable in a few months. And that’s all before they utter a word, learn to walk and need to be shod.

Once you factor in the rising costs of education, you effectively need a small fortune handsome and growing investment portfolio before having your first child. The more you calculate the costs, the less you feel you will ever be able to provide for your offspring. And that’s if you only have one.

Good thing mathematics is unbiblical. (A proposition I wish I had in my senior year of high school.) Continue Reading…

To obtain a gun license in South Africa, you need to…

• Be over 18
• Pay an exorbitant non-refundable application fee
• Attend a series of (expensive) classes
• Pass a theory test on gun laws
• Take a practical target-shoot test
• Install a gun safe, mounted to two walls
• Pass an on-site inspection of said gun safe by Police officer
• Pass an in-person interview with Police
• Provide two references who will be interviewed telephonically by the Police
• Obtain your spouse’s written approval
• Write an essay explaining why you need the gun
• Pay for a specific gun
• Wait over a year for your application to be processed
• Repeat most of the process every five years for renewal
  

To have a baby you need to…

Well, you get the picture. Anyone can have a baby, and yet I bet most would agree that you can do at least as much damage to society by being an irresponsible and ignorant parent, than you could by being a gun owner.

Last week we looked a the importance of preparing spiritually and practically to maximize your spiritual growth. This week let’s explore the preparation needed for parenting.

On one extreme you have the blithe naiveté of some who figure that raising kids is done intuitively, like navigating by following your nose. These parents have no goals for their parenting, and it tends to show. If you don’t plan your garden, you will have a bumper crop of weeds. If you do establish a goal, it will require constant planting, tending, weeding, pruning, fertilizing, and other exertions of TLC. Parents with no intentionality in their parenting may produce a gang of hoodlums that society label as “problem kids” while the parents prefer the moniker, “self-expressive.”

Continue Reading…