Usually, when a relative has a baby, you expect to incur the cost of going to the hospital with a few balloons, flowers and maybe a gift of some baby clothes.
This past weekend, my sister was the proud new mother of a baby girl! This is my sister’s first child so everybody very happy for her and her husband, especially my kids (and my son in particular). Since my sister was a rookie at this, and we were the last in the family to have a child, my wife told my sister that she would be willing to help my sister out. My sister wisely took my wife up on her offer, so off my wife when down to stay the night this week!
So I decided to go over the numbers as a fun exercise to determine what the costs were for my sister having a baby this past Saturday…
Here is what I came up with:
| Balloons | $10.00 | ||
| Baby Clothes | $10.00 | ||
| Flowers | $20.00 | ||
| Travel Gas Money | $97.00 | ||
| Eating out kids | $47.00 | ||
| Eating out wife? | ?? | ||
| $184.00 | |||
What have I been doing in this process? I’ve taken over the responsibilities of my wife for the week of getting my kids off to school, and running the typically soccer taxi service duties.
How did I do?
Rocky at first (we missed the bus by the tiniest of margins the first day), but since the first day, everything has gone as smooth as ice (literally)! Luckily, my boss being the great guy that he is, let me work the past few days from home!
How are things going?
The last few days has been a wear on my wife, she sounds more and more weak when she calls to check to see how things are flowing up here…
For the kid, it almost like a mini-vacation! I purposely let things go a little slack, and we’ve been playing more games together while my wife has been gone. I honestly think to some degree they are both enjoying this change… I have too, to a degree.
But, I’ll be glad when my wife is back! 🙂
Have any of you ever been side swiped by an hidden expense that you don’t anticipate like mine?
-D