Kids are ridiculously expensive.
 

We all know that. But sometimes the expenses take you by surprise.

I have the blessing of having a teenage daughter who (a) loves unusual clothes and loves resale and hand-me-downs from friends, and (b) whose routine is pool, school (with an enforced dress codes), pool, slob/homework/sleep.... so needs little in the way of fashionwear. And didn't have a boyfriend.

Eventually, even athletic girls needs bras. Stingy Brit though I am, those need to be new. I can only wear cotton bras, need underwire, there's basically only one bra available for me, but fortunately, it's actually cheap. Tween bras are also cheap. At first, you can just visit the "tween dept" and get something that works. When those start to stretch and they start to know what works for them........OMFG I just spent more on bras (and thongs to avoid VPL with the athleticwear :eek: ) than family food for a week. Who knew? it should have been in the manual.

I have to say, in my limited experience, that it only gets worse. :(

yup. but it doesn't sem to matter how much you prepare for it getting worse, there is always a blindside.....


(yes, I'm prepared for the car insurance increase when she starts to drive next year.... :eek:.... I am, really.....well, at least i know it's coming..... :eek: :eek: :eek:)

Yeah, Aden will get his learners permit this week coming up. Not only have we had to think about the expense, but it's just scary having a kid driving. On the real roads. :(

I used to think that way, but then I realized that American cars are built like tanks and I won't have to get up before 5am :D

haha...lucky you. Cars over here aren't like that, and if we want to leave our suburb, we have to go on the highway. Scary stuff for a parent.

Fortunately for me, the boys have been driving around Dad's farm for years, so at least they have that much experience before they hit the roads.

They have to have their learners for 12 months over here in my state, so it'll still be a while before I don't have to drive them. :(

OMG.

I seriously do not want to ever have to buy my daughter thongs. Not because I'm prudish, but because I'm one of those people who can't stand wearing them myself, and just knowing she had one on would give me the shudders every time I looked at her.

Yup, even she admited that they didn't seem like the most comfortable option, but propposed that they can't be worse than a swimsuit wedgie which she is known for tolerating better than most.... :/

and as an aside..........

her school is new and maybe a little different from the other two high schools and in an attempt to make that clear stricty enforces the district dress code (the other two schools don't) ... dress codes is no spaghetti straps, no midrifs, no sagging.......

apparently the rumor is this year the principal plans to "add" to the distrist code ....no "yoga pants" for girls because it's too distracting for the boys.

WTF?

I can't see this ever happening (thankfully) but the rumor is huge and has been alive for 6 months. Burqas all round?

You are hilarious.
Until you are a teenage boy jacking off six times a day, with unrelenting vicious boners, you'll have no idea how, ahem, difficult it is for teenage boys to navigate not only the pheromones given off by girls, but also the visual stimulation.

At 52, it has simmered down a bit, but not much. Maybe not Bhurquahs for the girls but blinders for the boys...:D

eta, not teenage girls in my case, but women.

Yeah blinkers/blinders was my recommendation too......

preach it brother.

blinders? How about glasses?

Come on you bleeding heart liberals. The time-honoured way to fix problems with male behaviour is to change the behaviour of the females. It's the natural order of the universe!

So why do women have a lesser place in the workplace?

Because sandwich making isn't really that impressive? :p:

Why do men have such difficulty making eye contact?

Because breasts don't have eyes.

That's what you think. The back of our head doesn't have monopoly, you know.....

so we *are* looking into your eyes then?

why did you just hit me?!

I've been at a New Years festival where one woman had cunningly painted her large round breasts as eyeballs. :lol:

She caused considerable confusion.


To be on the safe side, I just looked at her neck.

Maybe we should get nipple tattoos on our eyelids?

Risky. We might inadvertantly suck your eyeballs out during legitimate foreplay.

Legitimate foreplay does not cause pregnancy.

But may cause blindness

I am told that the female body has ways of, you know, shutting that sort of thing down.

You can cross your arms and legs all you want, but that won't keep us from going blind from not looking you in your eyes.

ftw!

Don't you put an aspirin in there or something?

Um.... back to the ridiculously expensive...... *gulp* $185 for a 4-hour coaching/tryout for the Olympic Development Water Polo Program. SG is being solicited, but it is "open to all" -which I heartily agree with- but $185 kinda makes it not open to all? No? I understand they need to charge to ensure that "free child minding and coaching" is not the message..... but that's a hard price tag to swallow. (100 for the tryout, 85 for USAWP reg. For comparison, USA swimming is $54 for reg, but you only have to register to compete.)

Yeah, but ever since I learned that the government pays for gold medals, it seems like a much more reasonable investment.

If she does Olympic Development Water Polo, does this mean she won't be doing Olympic Development swimming? And is this a national thing you just happen to be lucky enough to live near, or are there multiple programs in major cities, or what?

Well she kinda did ODP swimming a couple of weeks ago, but there isn't a specific program. They don't need one, all club teams are "ODPs"

Multiple programs, but by three-ish states (Mich, Ill and Ohio in our case) Yes, she kind of has to choose at this point. Except she's just not ready to choose. She's 14. She's played WP for less that a year..... and it's swim season now and her coach is holding her up as a model and she feels awesome about swimming......and she's swum for 8 years.... the coach who told her real swimmers don't play polo.... the coach who we would keep it secret from if we could but unfortunately her daughter is also being solicited and the polo peeps don't know how to use bcc......

but that's off topic. $185 is nuts for a try-out, no? Maybe i should make her wear all that expensive underwear underneath her suit? ;)

Re "lucky enough to live near" ...no, well kinda.... Tryouts at home pool! But coaching in Chicago IL, Miami OH, and Lansing MI. Coaching is 4 hrs Sat and Sun requiring hotel (once/month TFSM). Competitions in CA and FL, one each, I think.

(I think the program cost is around 700 for 32 hours -that's not so bad. But 185 for a tryout?)