$220,000

So, I heard on a respectable news program the other day that babies born in 2009 will cost an estimated $220,000 to raise until the age of 18. Really? $220,000? And that's before a college education and a wedding? Wow. That means it will cost Mark and I a whopping $880,000 to raise our four. Goodness, why not have one more and make it a million?

But really, I'd like to know what that amount includes. A live-in nanny? Tuition to private school? Truffle infused mac n' cheese? Designer undies? Swimming with dolphins? I'm not raising JLo's kids here.

Certainly they're not taking into account folks like me who are raising kids on the cheap: hand-me-downs, road trips to grandma's in the old van, public school, Little Ceasar's.

It just really calls in to question what children really need. I'd love to dress them all in CrewCuts, feed them purely organic, and put them up in a suite at the Disneyland Hotel, but I guess what's most important, is that I indulge them with love, patience and attention. And maybe the occasional game of Candy Land. Oh...that's so much harder than buying them a pony.