It costs the average family about $10,000 US dollars per year to raise a child, so that’s $180,000 by the time the child turns eighteen. At the present rate of inflation, a baby born today will cost its parents $295,000 for college.
Category: Children and Education
More Beer Than Presidents
Daniel Smith-Rowsey wrote a letter to the public through a major magazine in which he contends the previous generation has spoiled the economy and social structure for present-day college age people. Of the stupidity of his generation, he stated, “We can name more beers than presidents.”
8-Year-Old Emperor
An Indian emperor was given four wives when he inherited the throne at the age of eight.
Johnny Depp
Sometimes taking unexpected advice pays off, if Johnny Depp is any indication. Johnny Depp stared in some great movies including Edward Scissorhands, Don Juan DeMarco and Pirates of the Caribbean. He initially wanted to be a rock star, not a movie star. At age sixteen, he dropped out of high school to pursue his dream. After two weeks, he had a change of heart and tried to reenter school, but his principle advised him to ‘follow his dream.’ He did play in some bands, and had some success from time to time, but ended up taking various odd jobs, including selling pens. That’s when by happy accident he met Nicolas Cage, who convinced him he should try his hand at acting. That seems to have worked fairly well.
Johnny’s mother was a waitress, and his father a civil engineer. The family moved twenty times during his childhood, starting out in Kentucky, where he was born, and ending up in Florida.
The Cells of a Baby
A newborn baby is a colony of 26 billion cells.
Children and Common Colds
Children have many more colds than adults. One theory to explain this is that we acquire a permanent immunity to a cold once we get it. But there are many variations of the virus, we’d have to catch one of each kind of cold before we would be immune to all colds.
Babies Born in Saunas
In Finland babies were born in saunas until the 1920’s. The babies probably were more comfortable arriving in a dark, warm room than in a bright, cold hospital room.
Twins
One out of every 33 births results in twins. Identical twins happen about once in every 250 births. The likelihood of triplets is one in 837. These numbers are much higher than they used to be. The biggest cause is probably fertility drugs. The second largest cause for multiple births is that many women are waiting longer to have children, and later in life, the body is more likely to release more than one egg at a time.
Growing Disgust
Infants are born without the emotion of disgust. It does not fully develop until age seven. As everyone knows children at age two will put everything in their mouths. Researchers put grasshoppers into milk glasses and offered them to five-year-olds. The kids took the grasshoppers out and drank the milk. By age seven, the kids understood the concept of contamination, and would not drink the milk.
Drunk Children
Twenty-five percent of the ninth-graders in the state of Colorado have been drunk enough to pass out.