Inflation and Cost of Living in Vancouver

Still working on getting that downpayment.

Have looked into childcare in more depth... This scares the bejesus out of me.

I thought, with savings, I could afford a nanny, which would allow me to continue the irregular job hours that I have now. But... with doing it above the table, and accounting for travel time to and from work? That's ten hours a day of nanny I need. One nanny would be four working days of work... But then I would also need a second nanny for that last day, including vacation/insurance/benefits etc for THAT nanny, and I'm done.

I don't have the financial base to be realistically thinking this can happen with this job.

Even if I lucked into a public daycare space, that's still $1300 now, and likely $1500 or more in a few years with the average 4% inflation each year.

So.

Do I think about taking another job, somewhere with a lower cost of living? That most likely would be a pay cut due to the loss of seniority inherent in moving location. A more rural location would increase the difficulty of finding childcare that can work around shift work and such that would also be built in to a new locale. I would have more access to wilderness to expose the children to though, and a more relaxed lifestyle with fewer opportunities to spend money I won't have. It may be seven years though, before I get another steady, defined hour set job. I would be in my late thirties. That's a negative.

Yes, I could just dive into it all, and hope for the best. But.... I'm a realist. I don't want to put myself and my family in a position of me not being able to feed or cloth my children. Having a mortgage will increase my housing costs for the next ten years... That's a fact. I could not buy, but then there is that whole aspect of uncertainty I would HATE hate hate in fearing being kicked out for having multiple pets and a child, or not being able to afford the rental increase.

<Side note:> One of the reasons I'm so set on buying is simply looking at inflation for rent prices, here in Vancouver. It's not like salaries are going up, but in ten years, rent will anywhere from 30% to 40% more than it is now (assume 2.5-3.5% inflation allowed, as per the last five years). That would make a two bedroom minimum $1600 (instead of today's $1200), not including utilities. That would be a huge chunk of cash for not-a-mortgage, leaving very little for food and necessities, let alone childcare.

Ten years from now, what costs will be like, assuming minimum wage and average increase in public care:
         Nanny                                                                              
So.... $2000 Childcare (nanny #1)
          $740  Childcare (nanny #2)
         $1600 Rent
         $ 400  Food
         $ 100  Electric and Phone
         $ 100  Internet
_________________________________
         $4200 MINIMUM after tax income

....
....
....

That would mean I would have to be earning a MINIMUM of $40/hour.

This is so disheartening. No wonder some moms just choose to be on social assistance until their children are old enough for school.... One can't afford to work, or do anything other than just scrape by until the daycare isn't needed.

[Links] Parenting Essay I want to read again once I have kids...

"If She's Not Having Fun You Have To Stop

Essay on how teaching empathy and yes means yes begins in play, at an early age.

Hiatus and mourning

So I've drawn myself a few new lines in the sand.

First line:

I am not allowed to move forward with any more SMC stuff until I have my finances until control. What do I mean by this? I want to have the absolute minimum 5% downpayment in my pocket for the tiniest house I can squeak by with, and another known sum of money in my pocket in preparation for the expense of Trying.

I've been over focusing, and thinking about this too much. It's going to take at least a year, maybe three, to get this point done. I need to remember to live my life as well as plan my future.



Second line:

I am going to allow myself to mourn possibilities that are likely/unlikely to happen if I continue down this SMC path. Properly mourn. I spend too much time being positive, reminding myself that Things Aren't Like That and Chance! Luck! Change!

Those are good things for staying positive, but I also need to acknowledge that I will lose things, concepts, possible paths by choosing to mother alone. Without truly staring them in the face and saying goodbye, it's hard to gut understand the path's turns.

I'm unlikely to be walked down the aisle by my father, beaming proudly.

No one will be holding my hand in the labor room... Or someone I hire will be, most likely.

When I'm sick, I will likely have to ignore my pain, as there will be no one else to care for my child available. I will have to accept that I get growly in such situations, and forgive myself.

I will have to deal with butthurt men belittling my family composition, thoughtlessly and most likely hurting my child's feelings in retaliation for my choice to create my family somehow preventing them from finding a family of their own.

I will always feel those twinges of poverty, as other two income parent's make thoughtless assumptions about base contributions towards group activities or goals.

Many of my friends will drift away, as commonalities dwindle.


I'm unlikely to achieve anywhere close to the level of financial stability or freedom that I would as a single person.

I'm unlikely to do much travelling with a child, as compared to without.

If I choose to co-parent, dating will always have the extra layer of complication, or I may choose to not date at all and focus on the family of coparenting. I would be choosing to live with the uncertainty of "What if someone comes along with the "whole package", and my coparent leaves?

[Shopping] The Thermometer

One of the things that I've endeavored to do over the next three years is to buy quality things that I will need or will make life incrementally easier once I'm parenting.

This month's purchase is the VERATEMP Infrared thermometer.

No more wondering whether the temperature on the under-the-arm or oral thermometer is really accurate; Infrared is just the same technology that hospitals use. It doesn't need disposable covers, and won't transfer germs, since you aren't touching the sick person with it.

This will also prevent me from having to wake my child when sick to take temperatures; you just hold the thermometer a few inches away from their forehead and Bam! Done. One second to take the temp, and another to apply the traffic light system (green is good, orange is mild fever, red is high fever). I was a little put out that there isn't a beep of any sort to let me know it's done, but hey, it takes two seconds and that way you won't wake the child up when you are checking.

This device is also useful for measuring bottle temperature, room temperature, bath temperature, and any other surface temp that could be necessary.

It set me back about forty dollars; I see online that you can get it for $35 at Costco, but I don't have a membership anymore so that's moot.

I figure it will be these little things that I'll be needing and without money for, so I might as well start buying the lifetime last items now, when it's not so tight.

Geek Project -- Chell's playhouse

This week's project has been a cat condo for Atticus. I decided to make it Portal 2 themed, as I'm replaying that game through right now. First off, we had to make a sign for the laser pointer that was on theme....

Next, was a companion cube to play with, and a Wheatley buddy to bat at (both buyable at the Valve store, if you don't feel like making your own).

We continued on theme with two separate area's, one blue, one orange. Orange area is walled off and secluded for kitty litter box. The wall on the left is removable so  I can clean it out easier, and the "litter box" is just a London drugs basic storage box with a plastic liner. I've added about 1/2 inch of space between the ceiling of the litter box/second story and the outside wall, so that smell won't discourage proper use. Two basic stainless steel feeding trays are used, with the stands flipped upside down so they can hang off the condo walls without more effort. Second storey is reinforced wire covered in cardboard and then towel. The towel is just tied on with rope so he can bunch it around, and it's easier to take off to clean. All other towel bits on the inside are sewn into pillow case format, and then mounted on peices of foam or cardboard.

Scratching post in the corner isn't particularly on theme yet, but I'm thinking of recovering the giraffe spots with appropriately colored fabric.

Next we jut had to have a level sign on the tiered cat furniture outside.... He jumps on these two levels to reach the top of the condo. There is a lounging pad and a portal two themed bookshelf on the top.

Cat Photo Update -- because this is the internet

Kitten has been growing wonderfully, and is now five months old. He is going to be superbig, as 7 pounds is where he is sitting now, still growing.

That said, being much bigger now, it's become much more important that his shinannigans don't get out of hand and wreck my apartment. Two of the worst right now are his darting through the door when I get home from work and then making me play Donkey Kong throughout my building( up each flight of stairs, to the other end of the building, then up more stairs, back to the first side of the building, repeat, to catch him), and trying to claw climb up the screen windows. I can put up with the first, but the second could cause damage and must be contained. Thus, the kittycrate was born. Yes, I am a dog person, can't you tell?

And it's working. Both problems have stopped entirely, and kitten is happy in crate.... but having the crate caused another problem... The crate is UGLY. Super, duper, ugly. It's an assault to my senses, and thus....

Being a geek, especially a crafty, theme loving geek? PROJECT TIME.

Prototype idea: Designing a smaller, separate area for the mini litterbox to prevent odour/kicking of litter into the main play space. I also want to make at least one multilevel shelf for lounging, and add some type of geeky theme (I decided on PORTAL 2). DIY Project notes below the cut.

Before Picture: Crate: 36x23x25 dimensions,

Materials:

Two orange bathtowels, one purple, one old ratty blue towel.
Cardboard from the box we got the cage in. Thick.
Rope
London Drugs Decorative Storage box
Litter Liner
Wire to make second story
1/2 set of Portal 2 themed cork coasters to use as signs

Here is a picture of current kitty (Atticus, at six months); next post will show the finished cat condo.

[Technology] Designer Babies?

A man walks up to a counter, and says, "I would like a child, female, with blue eyes, black hair, suitable for a career in gymnastics. If you throw in a lowered chance of  contacting colorectal cancer, I'll allow a few rare genotypes to be added in to keep them in the population." The clerk nods, and gives a script for pickup in three days.

Nine months later, a beautiful blue eyed girl is born. 

Welcome to 2013; Welcome to the future. This is now.

While we all are aware of sex pre-selection via PGD in fertility clinics (developed for use in avoiding sex linked diseases such as muscular dystrophy, but now available for family balancing as well), there is a new patent on the market from genetic testing company, 23andme. HuffPost covered the patent back in April; in short, the company was approved for a patent on "gamete donor selection" for favored phenotypes.

If you haven't heard of 23andme before, I suggest you check it out. For only $99 plus shipping, you can swab yourself and find out which diseases/risks you have and are likely to pass on to your child. You can see if it is even medically possible for you to bear a green eyed child, if you are likely to get Parkinson's when you are older, or if you have the gene that helps coffee effect you more. Thousands of pieces of information can be laid at your finger tips, and if both partners get swabbed, you can predict the chance of many childhood diseases, and even eye/hair colour, on your screen. If you have already conceived a child, you can swab their cheek and find out which, if any, health problems they are more likely to face/pass on.

Another company takes this a little further; GenePeeks, located in New York, will take a woman's cheek swab and compare it to 600 sperm donors. It then emails you back with the top five or ten donors that your dna has the best chance of conceiving a healthy child with. Price tag? $2000. Ouch. But how much money and worry could you save down the line, preventing a deadly disease or brain cancer? For some, this will be worth it. That $2000 covers an independent computer system, and code names, so if you don't want to know if it's your dna or theirs that is high risk for a disease, you don't have to, and there is no medical onus to share.

Add in the current quiet research going on involving artificial wombs and pre-birth correction surgery, and the whole world may look quite a bit different in another hundred years.