Sure that baby's cute, but ouch -- the sticker shock one could get from its price tag is downright painful. The United States Department of Agriculture (really, those guys?!) has released the new cost estimates for raising a child, and let's just say that in many parts of the country, a nice house could be had for the price of one kid. Any guesses? The closest answer without going over wins... $226,920 will get you one kid raised to the age of 18. Uggh, the price is not right. Especially when one hears about the inflation associated with these little tykes -- a 2.1 percent increase in just one year. If only housing values would rise at such a fast rate.
Take a couple of well-worn sentiments, like "a mother will do anything for her child" and "once a mother, always a mother," put them together and you get the mom who's planning to donate her uterus to her daughter who was born without reproductive organs. If all goes according to plan, the ground-breaking organ transplant will take place next spring in Sweden. If it's successful, doctors will attempt to fertilize the daughter's own eggs with her boyfriend's sperm and have them implanted in the donated uterus.
As Father's Day draws near, it's time to pay an annual tribute to the contribution fathers make in raising children. While it seems that most studies and headlines focus on a mother's impact on children, studies have shown that kids whose fathers are involved benefit in many ways, including improved cognitive skills, decreased behavioral problems, less delinquency among teenage boys and fewer psychological problems with young women. When you add it all up, it becomes apparent that they really deserve more than just another lousy tie this year...
Any stay-at-home mom who's ever struggled to keep up with both tending toddlers and keeping the house clean, only to have her husband complain about tripping over toys when he gets home, will appreciate the chastisement, er, advice Dear Prudence doled out to one dad this week. After acknowledging the many, many wonderful contributions his wife made to the family, he couldn't help but whine about the mess. Dear, Dear Prudence responded with a delightful suggestion that he give his wife a Saturday off to relax while he discovered just how much housework he could accomplish while caring for an 18-month-old. Perhaps the lousy tie will suffice in his case.
Dana Macario is a TODAY Moms contributor and Seattle mom to two sleep-depriving toddlers. She is currently developing an alarm clock that will start an IV coffee drip 10 minutes prior to wake-up time. Once properly caffeinated, she also blogs at www.18years2life.com.