Personal Reflection : The Costs Of Raising A Baby

There are many things in life are great gifts, and being a parent is one. Getting the news that you are expecting a child is a speechless moment. It is a very joyful occasion and everyone is happy about what to expect over the next nine months. Baby names start flowing and in every magazine you are looking at outfits and furniture and things of that nature. But has anyone stop to think about what is cost to have this baby? What medical expenses that will be incurred during this forty weeks process. The answer is no. No one probably really cares but the hospital and the insurance company. Now it’s time to take a look at some of the cost behind the blessing of labor and delivery.

Jason Furman and Parrot Sharon explain why raising minimum wage will help families. The wage has to be elevated to just the point where a family can actually afford all the necessities they need in order to survive. The cost of living in houses for poor people makes it difficult for them to afford it and is difficult to stay on task with all the bills. Many minimum wage workers have families to support. The cost of raising children is very expensive. It is an average of $7,100 per year. Minimum wage workers can barely afford to pay child care for one child, let alone two. Increasing minimum wage will also make life easier to those who have food stamps and child care needs. Which can also help them get into college a lot faster so they can go out and pursue a better paying job.

"Motherhood is a great honor and privilege, yet it is also synonymous with servant hood. Every day women are called upon to selflessly meet the needs of their families. Whether they are awake at night nursing a baby, spending their time and money on less-than-grateful teenagers, or preparing meals, moms continuously put others before themselves and enjoy doing their jobs as mothers." (Stanley) . According to Betty Rollin 's essay, "Motherhood: Who Needs It?", Rollin argues that mothering, preconceived as a biological necessity, is in fact, a psychological desire. Rollin quotes psychiatrist Dr. Richard Rabkin: "Women don 't need to be mothers any more than they need spaghetti... But if you 're in a world where everyone is eating spaghetti, thinking they need it and want it, you will think so too." (Rollin 102) Although one 's society may have the power to influence his or her eating habits, a mothers desire to have children is an entirely different issue. Many women often want to have children and go through motherhood because of social pressure, to please their spouse, and to be "happy".

In this article the Canadian press explains how minimum wage has impacted families and gives an intake of how life is for people who live off minimum wage “A single mother […] works multiple jobs at minimum wage in order to provide

The young woman has just found out she is pregnant and is glowing with excitement. Will the baby look like her or the father? Will the baby grow up to be a world-famous leader or a rocket scientist? Then, reality hits. This little person is going to need stuff. Lots of stuff. Food, clothes, diapers, wipes, shelter, college tuition…., the list goes on and on. For this post, I will be discussing the family development and life cycle theory, task 2: financing childbearing and childrearing.

Most likely, in this scenario, I would either lose guardianship over my children because I would not be able to provide for them or we would become homeless as a family because of my inability to pay the bills which would already be behind due to my shortage of income. A minimum wage income combined with an expensive cost of living sets my family up for disaster if anything, such as an accident, were to upset the family’s only source of financial support.

Also depending on where you live and how fast you grow, you will need to buy a variation of clothes for the winter and summer. With a family of four, it is almost incapable of happening. An average article of clothing cost anywhere between $15-30 for one piece. That is more than 2 hours of work. Imagine that, plus only getting an average of $290 a week. That will not last very long, which is very irritating to some people because they don’t want to let their family down, but raising minimum wage will help that tremendously. Another example that could take place is in an emergency like needing to stay late for work, and needing someone to babysit your kids. Many people cannot afford to do that with such little pay and have no choice but to leave work on time. With that happening and many not staying, that could cause them to lose their job, resulting in more poverty. To continue, minimum wage was created to stimulate the economy in 1938 (Sonn, Temple 1). Once minimum wage became a policy in the United States, it was successful in stimulating the economy when it was created because the federal minimum (if adjusted for inflation) was higher than today. Over the past 40 years, the power of minimum wage has fallen sharply. Minimum wage now, is about ⅔ percent of its previous power. The annual salary of a full-time American worker employed at $7.25 per hour is $15,080, which is less

As a student, having more frequent breaks could benefit students and teachers. “Although cumulatively there would be fewer days of, the frequency of school breaks would be much higher” (Top 10 Reasons). Normal schools have a summer break, two other breaks, and an assortment of different holidays (Top 10 Reasons). Additionally, if kids go to year-round school, which have more frequent breaks, they could have less stress.

Some schools in the United States have been switching to a year round school calendar instead of the traditional school calendar. How would children in the USA feel if their school year became year round? The year round schedule dictates schools use a 45-15 schedule in which every 45 days students get a 15 day break including weekends. Unlike the traditional calendar, which includes 60 days of summer break, holidays and weekends. Students and parents won't be able to do activities or vacation together using the year round schedule. The traditional school calendar is better than the year round school schedule.

The current minimum wage is $7.25, which equals two gallons of milk, one fast food meal or two gallons of gas. Can you imagine yourself working 12-hours a day and only having enough money to pay for rent and put food on the table for your family? With working all those long hours, you can barely afford to pay your utility bills and after that you don’t have enough money or time for luxuries like clothing or vacation. You have no savings as matter of fact, you are in a huge debt and you are living paycheck to paycheck. This is the story of millions of American worker, who are employed on minimum wage. The shocking part about this story is that million of Americans would be saved from this poverty life, if the American government raises the minimum wage. This would not only help the workers, but also the economy because raising the minimum wage would put extra money in the pocket of minimum wage worker and extra spending would help restore consumer spending.

Throughout the book I learned that trying to live off minimum wage with average life is nearly impossible. It is impossible because the people work all day, they have no health care and they typing scavenge the food that is cheap. Listening sad I feel like life and the economy is unbalanced. ? I've learned that the author is very biased and to me it seems odd that she would change places with someone that makes a low minimum wage when she makes all the money that she needs to survive. So what would happen if you put a child in the mix with trying to live off minimum wage? Some things that I'm going to include in my research paper is the statistics that she states at the bottom of the pages. An example would be the quote “So begins my career at the Hearthside, where for two weeks I work from 2:00 till 10:00 p.m. for $2.43 an hour plus tips” The quote shows that Barbra cannot live off $2.43.Another is “…forced to live off the contents of his car and whatever food items he can scrummage

Imagine being a single mother of three. Now let's say someone didn’t finish high school because they were pregnant with their first child. They are also paid at minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour where they live. Would it be possible to live like that? 1.3 million people in the united states are paid at minimum wage. In some states the $7.25 an hour is lowered or there is none at all. Minimum wage should be raised, although some argue it shouldn’t because of consumer prices.

However, Ricki Lane, the producer of the film, “The Business of being Born,” hopes that viewers will see that economically, births out of hospitals and at home is cheaper with a midwife, who will charge their patients only $4,000 for everything, including post-natal care. Whilst, a normal vaginal birth can cost up to $13,000, and a birth with multiple drugs involved, which typically leads to C-Section costs up to $35,000. However, with the American Medical association’s relationships with the hospitals and insurances, they are actually discouraging home births and midwifery, when the truth is that, statistically, it is safer and cheaper with home births and midwifes. It kind of makes you wonder just what exactly is on their agenda when it is a common practice to give births at home in both, developing and under developing countries, and has been for hundreds of years.

Low minimum wages affects everyday families and lives, more than the average person would think. A small minimum wage could have an very small effect on someone’s life, such as not being able to afford a new pair of boots or that new phone, contradictory to this low wages could also have a very serious effect on someone’s life . Meaning that a parent or single individual could not support their family because a lack of income, it could also mean the difference of living under a safe roof, or living in the streets. In 2016 alone, 40.6 million people in the United States

Overall, I did not enjoy doing this project because it was extremely difficult, especially having to wake up in the middle of the night to take care of the baby, but I also believe it was highly educational since I got to learn many new things. This project allowed me to experience the difficulties which many endure in the early stages of baby care. By taking care of the baby, waking up in the night, performing many tasks for the baby, it made me more empathetic towards mothers and appreciate their hard work.