Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Late Fathers Day Post

<BR>A Father's Day message.............<P>Love Without Counting The Cost<P>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.<BR>Talk about sticker shock. That doesn't even touch college tuition. For those with kids, that figure leads to wild fantasies about all the things we could have bought, all the places we could have traveled, all the<BR>money we could have banked.<P>For others, that number might confirm the decision to remain childless. 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. <P>That's a mere $24.44 a day.<P>Just over a dollar an hour. <P>Still, you might think the best financial advice says don't have children if you want to be rich.<P>It's just the opposite.<P>What do you get for your $160,140? Naming rights. First, middle and last.<P>Glimpses of God every day.<P>Giggles under the covers every night. More love than your heart can hold. Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.<P>Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds and warm cookies. A hand to hold, usually covered with jam.<P>A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites, building sand castles and skipping down the sidewalk in the pouring rain.<P>Someone to laugh yourself silly with no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.<P>For $160,140, you never have to grow up.<P>You get to finger-paint, carve pumpkins, play hide-and-seek, catch lightning bugs and never stop believing in the impossible.<P>You have an excuse to keep reading the adventures of Piglet, Pooh and Tigger<BR>too, watching Saturday morning cartoons, going to Disney movies and wishing on<BR>stars.<P>You get to frame rainbows, hearts and flowers under refrigerator magnets and<BR>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.<P>For $160,140, there's no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero<BR>just for retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof, taking the training wheels off the bike, removing a sliver, filling the 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.<P>You get a front-row seat to history to witness the first step, first word, first bra, first date, first time behind the wheel.<P>You get to be immortal.<P>You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren.<P>You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications and human sexuality no college can match.<P>In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there with God. You have the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away monsters under the bed,<BR>patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits.<P>So one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.<P><BR>

Very nice .<P>Toons<P>------------------<BR>Don't be ashamed to say what you are not ashamed to think.

when my daughter was first born, everybody told me how hard it would be, and all the things i would have to give up. and, they were right. it was hard. and i did give a lot of things up.<P>however, nobody told me about how rewarding it would be, and that i wouldn't be able to imagine what it was like without her.<P>the rewards, by a long ways, outweigh the cost, however you want measure that cost.<P>when i come in the door, and that high pitched voice screams "daddy!", and there is a 2 year old immediately wrapped around my legs, that's all that matters.<P>------------------<BR>Hunting is not a matter of life or death. It is much more important than that.

I would NOT trade both of my kids and the joy of raising them for ALL the riches in the world. THEY have made me very rich indeed! Not to mention the feeling of being BLESSED with the creation of LIFE!<BR>This Father thinks they are the most important things in his life, bar none.

My first was born on thursday of last week!6 pound 10 ounce angel.Now I understand how you guys feel about protecting them,I also understand how a parent can say that they would give there life for them in a seconds notice and you know they meen buisness!!!!!!!!1

Good one Tex! Where you been hiding lately? Mike.

Congrats Swampfox!

Congrads Swampfox-you are in for the adventure of your life! I can't imagine life without them. Doug

Congrats swampfox, Tighten the cinch and hang on for the ride of your life. It don't get any better.