The cool people at Seeking the Stork posed the question: How can we afford to raise a child?

The fact of the matter is we don’t know how we’re going to do it. If every couple crunched the numbers beforehand then we’d have such a shortage of children we’d have to close down school districts.

I grew up with two sisters, two parents in a one bedroom in NYC. Maribelle had bigger apartments but mother would occasionally use benefits such as medicaid and government food surplus. Our parents were factory workers. We didn’t starve. We didn’t have trendy clothes. Or fancy jewelry. Child care was neighbors and relatives and the occasional undocumented immigrant.

As for Mikey and myself we’ve been sooo lucky to have put little of our own money into trying to conceive. I’ve had insurance, a flexible medical spending account and some tax refund money. We live in a subisdized co-op, no mortgage and maintenance is based on income. But I have student loans, she has some credit card debt and will be taking more loans for seminary. In short, we are going to be a struggling lower middle class family.

But we know what’s that like. We know about clipping coupons, shopping around, finding cheap child care. There are babysitting operations all over my neighborhood run by kindhearted Dominicans, Mexicans, and other Latino immigrants. Is it Montessori? No but it’s what we can afford. Our kid will go to public school, wear k***t, thrift shop and t**g*t clothing. We’ll apply for WIC, food stamps and if I ever lose my job, medicaid and welfare.

My baby shower theme is going to be “IF it ain’t broke…give it to us.”