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Kids - A thread for bragging, venting and, advice.

Caleb just won the regional championship in the men's ball hockey league here.  That means he is invited to the Nationals in Ottawa next year.

He is the 19 on the far left in the green jersey.  Susan and I are trying to be there as well to support him.

https://www.facebook.com/260731840620015/photos/t.1598426812/1142830489076808/?type=1&theater

He has been accepted to the tryouts for the Brampton Beasts July 23rd.  He also decided not to go because they became Montreal's affiliate and he hates Montreal.  If he does make Brampton he is hoping to play for the Solar Bears next year.
 
Not just for kids...

...The 2017 Santa Claus Parade Sunday in Toronto..HO!HO!HO!...

(click on image to enlarge)

pnlzpslzj



See more photos here:
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/11/19/photos-santa-claus-parade-brings-magic-to-the-streets.html
 
So we're expecting our first in just around 3 and a half weeks. It's funny cos even though we've known for almost 30 weeks now it only just hit me in the last few days what's happening and the first hints of panic came along. I'm massively excited obviously but at the same time they're basically going to let me walk out of the hospital in a few week's time in charge of a whole other person.
 
Congrats, Arn.

It's fairly simple to keep a baby alive; you'll figure it out. Keeping your sanity while on no sleep and raising a good human being.....that's the tough part.  :-X
 
For the bragging side, has anyone thought about their child "I have no idea where she/he got that talent"?

I was decent in track when I was a kid, but never any serious threat to medal. My boy's in grade 3 and he not only won the 100 m, 200 m, and long jump, but he dominated. Like, the next closest boy was about 5 m back when he crossed the line. He even Usain Bolted and pulled up and looked around. I know he's just young, but I'm a proud papa.

Best thing is, even after knowing how much he won by, his first thought was how good his friends did.  :)
 
Haha cheers BF! I think I'll probably concentrate on the keeping it alive bit first and hopefully the rest will take care of itself as I start to get more sleep and sanity back..

On another note, did anyone find out in advance if they were having a boy or girl? We decided not to - my thinking was you can't do anything about it and it'll be a nice surprise and my main concern is he or she comes out well and healthy with whatever appendages he or she is meant to have.

But now while getting closer and trying to do little things - like wallpaper the nursery - it's really hard to find properly neutral stuff. Even the neutral wallpaper some of it is a bit boyish and some girlish
 
Arn said:
Haha cheers BF! I think I'll probably concentrate on the keeping it alive bit first and hopefully the rest will take care of itself as I start to get more sleep and sanity back..

On another note, did anyone find out in advance if they were having a boy or girl? We decided not to - my thinking was you can't do anything about it and it'll be a nice surprise and my main concern is he or she comes out well and healthy with whatever appendages he or she is meant to have.

But now while getting closer and trying to do little things - like wallpaper the nursery - it's really hard to find properly neutral stuff. Even the neutral wallpaper some of it is a bit boyish and some girlish
Click to expand...

We didn't want to know for our kids.  We wanted a surprise.

We just didn't do any decorating based on gender...don't find out, it's much more exciting if you don't know!
 
Woohoo! Congrats, Arn! and Bullfrog, I guess :P

Babies can't see much past 8-10 inches (i.e. the distance to your face while being held) or even in colour for the first 3 months, so just decorate with whatever as it's more for you two than the baby. They'll also forget anything from 0-3 yearsish so again, do whatever you want (i.e. Blue and White with silver trim) and you can re-evaluate based on the kid's preferences.
 
Arn said:
Haha cheers BF! I think I'll probably concentrate on the keeping it alive bit first and hopefully the rest will take care of itself as I start to get more sleep and sanity back..

On another note, did anyone find out in advance if they were having a boy or girl? We decided not to - my thinking was you can't do anything about it and it'll be a nice surprise and my main concern is he or she comes out well and healthy with whatever appendages he or she is meant to have.

But now while getting closer and trying to do little things - like wallpaper the nursery - it's really hard to find properly neutral stuff. Even the neutral wallpaper some of it is a bit boyish and some girlish
Click to expand...

We didn't find out for the first 2, and then we found out for the 3rd.  Nothing you can do but after 2 surprises we were ok with knowing and planning for the 3rd girl.
 
We found out the sex as soon as we could. There's just no way we could have waited. Nothing to do with decorating (your boy may love pink or your girl may love blue), just so excited to know.
 
For those with kids, I been doing some math on RESP's.

We have been fortunate enough and diligent enough to be able to put aside $2,500 per year per kid since birth to maximize the RESP 20% grant up to a max of $500 per year. My kids are just 4 and 7 and it's already up to $50K with $35K out of our pocket, not bad. I thought this is crazy, it's going to be way to much money but it's not.

The life time grant per child is $7,200 so for us with two kids it's $14,400 which is 20% of $72K. To get to the grant maximum as quickly as possible we need to invest $72K over 16 years (2Y@2.5K(1 kid), 13Y@5K(2 kids), 1Y@2K(top up to 72K)).

Using a financial calculator with the investment schedule mentioned above, including the 20% grants per year, and a interest rate of 6%, when my oldest turns 18 their should be $170K in the RESP with just $72K out of pocket.

RESP income is taxed in your kids name when withdrawn so if my two kids go to post secondary 4 years each I can divide the 170K by 8, equaling $21.25K of RESP income per year per kid paying very little if any tax.

Is $21.25K per year enough for school? Probably not, according to Macleans the average annual cost of post-secondary in Canada is currently $19.5K per year. At 2.5% inflation over 11 years when my oldest is 18 that $19.5K inflates to $25K.

Yikes.

Time is money and a free 20%? Take it and run. Invest into those RESP folks. We're going to need all the help we can get.
 
If it makes you feel better, that 19.5k per year is the total expenses of a university student on average, 40% of which is rent and includes booze money.

Tuituion is only, like, 7k a year on average.
 
We've been all over that RESP for a few years now, having 3 kids you pretty much need it.
 
I thought you just had to disown your kids and they got free tuition. 

I am certainly going to strongly encourage my daughters to go to a local university/college. Going away to school often does not carry an advantage. Obviously there are several exceptions. I know several people that went away for no real advantage  and ended up coming back home and getting a job locally. They had loans well into their 30s despite financial help from parents. They certainly got to party a lot though. 
 
cabber24 said:
The Ceeps in London had $1 mystery draft beers, probably a half pint.
Click to expand...

There was a bar downtown...I want to say it was called the Eight Ball where it was 8 dollars for a pitcher and all you can eat wings. That and the #6 combo from the Jade Palace was basically how I survived.
 
cabber24 said:
Is $21.25K per year enough for school? Probably not, according to Macleans the average annual cost of post-secondary in Canada is currently $19.5K per year. At 2.5% inflation over 11 years when my oldest is 18 that $19.5K inflates to $25K.

\
Click to expand...

My daughter just finished her 4th year of university. With Books, Tuition and whatever else the university came up with to pass down to the students, She averaged around $9000 a year.

Like Nik said, things get expensive when you move out of town and have to pay rent or stay at the dorm. My middle daughter is due to start in 2019. We'll see how much that changes as it looks like she'll be heading out of town.
 
OldTimeHockey said:
cabber24 said:
Is $21.25K per year enough for school? Probably not, according to Macleans the average annual cost of post-secondary in Canada is currently $19.5K per year. At 2.5% inflation over 11 years when my oldest is 18 that $19.5K inflates to $25K.

\
Click to expand...

My daughter just finished her 4th year of university. With Books, Tuition and whatever else the university came up with to pass down to the students, She averaged around $9000 a year.

Like Nik said, things get expensive when you move out of town and have to pay rent or stay at the dorm. My middle daughter is due to start in 2019. We'll see how much that changes as it looks like she'll be heading out of town.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting that.  My oldest son is about 4 years away.  Post secondary scares me more than retirement at this point.  Need to get the three of them through and have them become productive members of society.  Seemed so far away 13 years ago.  :-).
 
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