The Hidden Costs of Children

Sometimes when those cost of having children surveys come out I think they underestimate all the costs. For example:

• Do they consider the cost of never getting to sit on the toilet in private?
• Or have a shower in peace?
• Or the cost of finally having that shower in peace only to find that the silence was due to your toddler pouring your new, expensive, barely used cuticle oil down the sink?
• Do they consider the cost to your sanity of hearing 'Mummy cuddle?' 87 times per hour?
• Or the guilt associated with feeling stressed by your most beloved wanting lots of cuddles?
• Guilt in general has got to rank pretty highly in the hidden costs of having children, but is it quantified?
• Do they consider the costs to society of having zombified parents roaming the street surviving on less than optimal sleep when their child has but a sniffle through the night?
• Then you'd have to add the extra dollop of guilt from being put out because your (almost, but not quite) sick child wants to cuddle at 4 a.m. and only Mummy's arms and Mummy's 'angelic' rendition of Brahm's Lullaby will soothe.
• I haven't even touched on the tedium of play time, the worry over eating habits and discipline routines or the obsession over every little thing your child is/does/doesn't do.

Today I am spent. Can you tell I am having a bad Mummy day? Hopefully we'll return to our regularly scheduled program soon.