On Children

I was recently emailed these, and I thought they were rather nice. Since I don't like forwarding things I will just put them here.



Paul Harvey Writes:

We tried so! hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I'd like better.

I'd really like for them to know about hand me down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meat loaf sandwiches. I really would.

I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated.

I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car.

And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen.

It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep.

I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in.

I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother/sister. And it's all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room,but when he wants to crawl under the covers with
you because he's scared, I hope you let him.

When you want to see a movie and your little brother/sister wants to tag along, I hope you'll let him/her.

I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely.

On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don't ask your driver to drop you two blocks away so you won't be seen riding with someone as uncool as your Mom.

If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one. I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books.

When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head.

I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a boy\girl, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what ivory soap tastes like.

May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole.

I don't care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don't like it. And i! f a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he is not your friend.

I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandma/Grandpa and go fishing with your Uncle.

May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays.

I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbor's window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Hannukah/Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand.

These things I wish for you! - tough times and disappointment,hard work and happiness. To me, it's the only way to appreciate life.

Written with a pen. Sealed with a kiss. I'm here for you. And if I die before you do, I'll go to heaven and wait for you.









The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth
to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about
sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition. But $160,140 isn't
so bad if you break it down. It translates into:

• $8,896.66 a year,
  
• $741.38 a month, or
  
• $171.08 a week. (this is cheap!)
  
• That's a mere $24.24 a day! Just over a dollar an hour.
  

Still, you might think the best financial advice is don't have children
if you want to be "rich." Actually, it is just the opposite. What do you
get for your $160,140?

• Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
  
• Glimpses of God every day.
  
• Giggles under the covers every night.
  
• More love than your heart can hold.
  
• Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
  
• Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
  
• A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
  
• A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites, and ...
  
• Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.
  

For $160,140, you never have to grow up. You get to:

• finger-paint,
  
• carve pumpkins,
  
• play hide-and-seek,
  
• catch lightning bugs, and
  
• never stop believing in Santa Claus.
  
• keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
  
• watching Saturday morning cartoons,
  
• going to Disney movies
  
• wishing on stars.
  
• You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator
  magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints
  set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's
  Day.
  

For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a
hero just for:

• retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
  
• taking the training wheels off a bike,
  
• removing a splinter,
  
• filling a wading pool,
  
• coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.
  

You get a front row seat to history to witness the:

• first step,
  
• first word,
  
• frst bra,
  
• first date, and
  
• the first time behind the wheel.
  

You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree,
and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called
grandchildren and great grandchildren.

You get an education in:

psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality
that no college can match. In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there
under God.

You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under
the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever,
and love them without limits, So . . one day they will, like you, love
without counting the cost. That is quite a deal for the price!!!!!!!