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“My period
started today,” Ruth said. Brody could hear her sadness over the phone. “Oh, I’m
sorry, honey. That’s too bad,” Brody said. Until now, they both had assumed that
she was pregnant, because her period was supposed to start three weeks ago.
Brody had
mixed feelings about the news. On the one hand, he knew that Ruth wanted a baby
more than anything else in the world. So, he naturally wanted her to be pregnant
and happy. In fact, he wanted a kid as much as she did. He would love to have a
son, so he could teach him how to avoid all the stupid mistakes Brody had made
in his own life.
On the
other hand, he had just read about a new study that said the cost of raising a
child was now $225,000. And that was just through high school. College was an
additional expense. Right now, the average cost of attending a public university
was $6,000 a year--if the student lived at home. Eighteen years from now, how
much would it be?
Brody and
Ruth had only $50,000 in savings, not even enough for a down payment on a nice
house. Plus, neither of them had health insurance. Premiums for insuring
themselves and the baby would cost at least $400 a month, not to mention the
deductibles and co-pays.
“You worry
about money too much,” Ruth had once told him. “Look at you—your parents raised
you and five more kids, and they were making much less than we are making now.”
“That’s
true,” Brody agreed. “But things were a lot different then.”
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