I Just Had ONE Kid..

All this buzz about the woman who had octuplets last week has got me thinking. (And usually my husband thinks that's not such a good thing.)

When I first heard it, I wondered why her husband wasn't there with her- after all, when people have fertility treatments, it usually means that they (husband and wife) want children. But not in this case. You'd think with 6 kids already, there would be no need for more. And as a single mother, how does she plan to support them all?

I guess it will be up to us as a nation to kick in the millions of dollars it will cost to raise all these children. Of course, no one asked us if that would be OK.. (Well, in all fairness, they didn't ask us if we wanted to bail out Wall Street either)

Maybe the book and the TV deals will pay the bills., but it seems unlikely.
Maybe the mom's parents can step up and pay the bills. Maybe even the frtility doctor who thought implanting 8 embryos wa a good thing. The bills for the birth alone are astronomical.

When I had my son, back in 1971, the hubs and I were poor folk, living in a ghost town, with a couple goats and a garden. We ate beans and rice, made our own bread, cooked from scratch. We gave birth at home (no bills) and had a friend help with the delivery. And we knew immediately that one child would be our legacy, and our limit.

He'll be 38 in a couple weeks, and I'm real proud of how he turned out. He grew up just fine without book deals or TV specials (we didn't even have a TV til he was 8.)
We went to the library, and read books together, did outdoorsy stuff, arts & crafts, grew peaches and had homemade ice cream birthday parties.


He's all grown up now, with a wonderful wife and two beautiful teenage daughters. Granted, like many young families, they could use a bailout right about now. The economic collapse has been unkind to a lot of working folks, and they're no exception. It's a struggle to make ends meet.

I just don't know how a single mom with 14 children (some with special needs) would do it. What would childcare for 14 kids cost?