Today I read, with great trepidation, that it now costs approximately $57,000 to raise your child til they turn 5 years old… My response? Is it any wonder I think I will stop at just having the one offspring??!! There being no money tree flourishing in our (barren) courtyard, I can’t help but wonder, who on earth can afford to go back for more? Shall we just leave large families to the rich and famous and those who can shell out vast sums of money without needing a bank loan to finance the family tree?

How did it all get so damn expensive? Do we really need everything we have acquired in the course of bringing home and raising baby? I am sure there is some sales mantra expertly instilled in to the staff of every baby store which whips any expectant mother who enters its doors in to a sort of guilt induced shopping frenzy, leaving hours later laden with an assortment of fancy gadgets you’ll likely get out of the box and lovingly stroke til Bub arrives, and then forget instantly how it even works once the reality of baby bring home kicks in.

One word for you. Ebay. But I’ll bet you it will take 6 months before you even register this as an option and another 6 months to find the time to do it. Oh yes, now is the occasion in which to be creative with the cash flow my friends!

Yet, back in the day, where life was blissfully uncomplicated by the restraints of technology and having to “keep up with the Jones’es”, people like my beautiful Nan & Pop proudly managed to produce a family of 10 and no one went hungry. Perhaps we will have to sell up and find a farm to be self sufficient on like they did, as Lord only knows how else you feed a family of so many.

So does this day and age really make it harder to have more children? We’ve never had so much opportunity and access to money, yet our family are perceptibly smaller. Maybe we just have too much distraction to digress from the recreation of procreation? Who knows… All I can say is if its an outlay of that much per child in such a short amount of time then perhaps we’ll have to get Harrison contributing to the family income some day soon. The husband will have to commence honing those super sporting skills that see kiddies signed up to superstar sports teams at an embarrassingly young age and I’ll have to parade him shamelessly around train stations, shopping centres and coffee shops where all the other glamazons of the world were “discovered” in the midst of living their normal life.

But then again, as the husband stated last night, as we three shared an impromptu giggle and cuddle on the loungeroom floor, Tone said he’d never felt so “rich”. How true… Material wealth, be gone with you! Genuine riches, no matter what the so-called costs, truly do come from the simple things like the innocent laughter of your son when he sees you smile. And the best part (barring any unforseen major dental operations); it wont cost me $57,000 for five years to bestow on him just that.