By now the outrage has gone viral. Suze Orman told a young couple that they couldn’t possibly afford for the wife to stay home when they have another baby because, among other things, when they have a new baby, their expenses “will go up $700-$1000 a month” due to having to pay for “diapers” and “this and that.” I don’t want to go into the whole financial situation of this particular couple (like the fact that they are already spending more than the two of them make together and, therefore, probably need way more help than this post is going to provide), and I don’t really want to criticize Suze Orman. Maybe she just pulled that number out of her hat, but also maybe it reflects the misguided norm of our Western consumer culture as applied to babies. And that’s what I really want to talk about. That $700-$1000 a month somehow sounded reasonable enough to throw out there on national television, and the young couple (who already had one baby) meekly nodded their heads. Plenty of seasoned thrifty family types are arguing that it’s ridiculously high. But I, being a details person, wanted to explore how high it really is and how much better a creative family could do.She goes into a great deal of detail and is quite reasonable I think. You should read the whole thing to see how silly and dangerous Ms. Orman's statement truly is. We are not as thrifty as Mrs. Parunak but no way adding a new baby added $700-$1000 per month. Did our kids wear brand new clothes? Nope. Did my boys occasionally wear pink jammies? Yep! A lot of the expenses that people think are "necessities" are really just frivolous. Now some kids have special needs and cost a lot more but those same kids are the ones who need their mom more than others.
So many families are indoctrinated with the dogma that you simply cannot afford to have children and if you do you can't have very many of them and if you somehow manage to have a kid or two there is no way you can stay home.
It is a lie.
Worse it is a lie swallowed hook, line and sinker by many a Christian. Enough is enough! You can have as many children as God blesses you with. You can stay at home with them and raise them up. You can make ends meet and make sure you kids have everything they need. You can do it!
4 comments:
I am with you brother... it is a complete lie!
Many people can choose to stay home, it just takes a lifestyle change, and many people are selfish and do not want to give up all the "stuff" they like to have.
Swanny
The number thrown out by Suze does seem rather high. We used cloth diapers at home, disposables if we left the house, and we did not use formula and bottles, rather we fed our babies as nature intended. Those two choices alone saved a lot of money. As for clothing and toys, garage sale purchases were the main shopping source.
Many people live way beyond their means, my daughter was saying last night how her friends Mom hasn't made a mortgage payment in two months, yet the family drive very nice cars, the daughter always has her hair professionally done, and they all wear name brand clothing, it would seem to me that looking the part is more important than financial security. We have always chosen to pay our bills, paid our home off a number of years ago, and we live very frugally, if we need clothing we go to the Goodwill store.
It is all about priorities, if having a show home, new car, and designer brands of everything is important, then it will cost a lot of money to live the lifestyle. Everyone has the freedom to make the choice how they wish to live, and what they can live with, for me sleeping soundly at night with no financial worries is worth way more than weekly shopping trips to the mall and beauty parlor.
Bean
Babies are good. But it ain't easy. We are still trying to work out the cheapest meal program possible, but I gotta say that God has blessed us at every turn! He keeps my kiddoes well fed and healthy.
Thank God for His provision,
Bethany
Bethany
That is very true. All the more reason for the church to seek to support families!
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