For on-going, ever-changing, cheap home entertainment, nothing beats having children. Well, not cheap exactly. If you're planning to have a child, you'd best be prepared to pay medical costs, daycare, the cover prices for a vast array of comprehensive parenting manuals which contain mutually-contradictory advice, pre-school testing fees, school enrollment fees, school picture fees, school picture retake fees because the first set of pictures make your child look like a member of the marsupial family, fashionably-ripped clothes, new fashionably-ripped clothes because the old ones aren't fashionably-ripped enough, driving lessons, a new car to replace the one which was tragically lost at sea during the driving lessons, car insurance against the next unforeseen disaster, orthodontia, eye wear, personal technology, SAT study guides, ACT study guides, study guides for re-taking the SAT and the ACT, professional tutoring for the SAT and ACT, bribes to get college admissions officers to look the other way when they see the SAT and ACT scores, college tuition, college graduation costs, and a parental subsidy for the first post-college year as your offspring try to establish themselves. All things considered, the cost of raising a child to productive adulthood is comparable to the cost of the average space shuttle mission, but with far less chance of being featured on the national news. (Although, in an interesting coincidence, if you do have children it's a good bet that just like the astronauts, they will lose one-hundred-thousand dollars worth of tools before they move out.)......
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Like this excerpt? Want the whole story? Listen to the audio version by clicking the 'Play' button at the top of this post.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
NOTES:
Short Cummings Audio 
