Stealthy Wealth: Which Is Cheaper To Raise

Battle of the sexes.

We recently found out the gender of our baby, due in September 2016 - we are having a Mr. This got me thinking... I wonder if boys are cheaper to raise than girls? There are certainly different needs that each gender requires as they grow up. I gave this some thought and decided to put my observations down... Now this is a tongue in cheek post, and I may be slightly bias, so please don't be offended...

So, which is more expensive, boys or girls?

1 - Cost of Girls

Right so ladies first. Let me tackle what sort of things a little lady will need. Now for this luckily I had my wife as a point of reference, since if I were to have a baby girl I imagine her to learn from mommy and inherit some her preferences and needs.

Potions and Lotions

Shampoo - tough decision...

If I get bitten by a pig, Mrs Stealthy Wealth will run off and promptly return with Pig Bite Relief Ointment. She has a cream/ointment/oil/lotion for just about every scenario you can think of - Potions and Lotions I call it. She has pre-cream cream which gets applied before the cream, and then to seal it all in of course you need the post cream cream.

Exfoliators, scrubs, masks, butters, cleansers, removers, balms...

Then there are shampoos...There is shampoo to make your hair grow, there is shampoo to make your hair thicker, shampoo to make your hair lighter, and there is also shampoo to make your hair darker - but I am still struggling to find the shampoo that says it will actually clean your hair! So I think I can assume a baby girl will be the same, and take after mommy especially in the teenage years.

Hair Accessories

At any given point, in every room at Stealthville, you will be able to find at least 2 hair ties and at least 3 hair clips. In fact to prove my point I am going to walk over to the table right now and see what I can find.....

Ladies, if you are short of hair accessories, you know who to ask...

Well would you look at that, a fine example of what I am talking about :) as you can see all manners of colours and functions. Although these items are maybe not that pricey (although I have no idea, can't say I have ever bought any...) this is something that a girl would require that a boy wouldn't, So another cost to chalk up to the lady side.

Clothes!

I think I will just simply allow a picture to explain my observations in this regard....

This picture is not entirely true - A woman would easily fill up that empty space at the top...

Education

I found some interesting data from the South African Higher Education Open Data showing the number of enrolments of males versus females into the higher education institutes in South Africa. The latest stats from 2013 (a little outdated, but still relevant) show that student enrolments were made up of 58% women. Come on gents pull up your socks! Now it is true that there are more women than men in South Africa - take a look at this picture from the 2011 Census I got from Stats SA

More women than men - male paradise

So from the 2011 results we can see that the SA population is made up of 51.3% women versus 48.7% men. So yes there are more women than men in South Africa, but not enough to justify the 58% female admissions into Tertiary Institutes. So it seems that if you have a daughter you have a much higher chance of having to pay University fees.

Shotgun

Every father of every daughter needs to get one. Good for polishing when the new boyfriend meets you for the first time.... These don't come cheap¹, and then there's also the annual licensing fee. If you have a boy you do not need this expense :)

2 - Cost of Boys

Ok, now that we have covered the ladies, it's time to move onto the boys.

Broken Windows

Man oh man, if I think back to my childhood this one stands out big time. And I think the situation is much worse if you have more than one son. Backyard cricket, soccer and baseball will take it's toll on your windows. No matter what my father tried (including banning all ball sports) he was just not able to keep his windows in tact.

First Aid

In terms of broken bones and ripped clothes, I think boys are clear winners. They are forever ~~falling off~~ riding bicycles and climbing trees. Then there's all the sports, contact games they like to play, wrestlers they like to imitate, and they always feel the need to run everywhere they go. So I am guessing a few more doctor visits, plasters and Dettol will be required when raising a son.

Food

Teenage boys - remember the good old days when there were leftovers after dinner? Well with a teenage son in the the house you will not be seeing those days again for a few years. These monsters can eat for three, and then still have seconds. I guess they need all those extra calories to fuel their growing ~~attitudes~~ bodies - this BBC webpage estimates your son to put on about 9 cm a year during his growth spurt! Expect your grocery bill to sky-rocket as you see your cute son turn into a ferocious food monster!

Dates

When your little guy takes a lady out, he will more than likely be expected to pay. Although to be honest, this is a trend which I think is changing. But I am old school, so I will leave it on here as an expense for the boys.

3 - The Verdict

So that was an interesting little exercise. On the girls side you have potions and lotions, hair accessories, clothes and a higher chance of having to fork out for higher education. On the boys side you have a number of broken windows to fix, extra first aid costs, a bigger grocery bill and possible extra pocket money when at the dating age.

So all in all they are pretty even, however the deciding factor which swings the costs to the girls side is the all-important and essential shotgun! I therefore safely conclude that it is cheaper to have a Boy then a Girl, and this leaves me satisfied that Stealthy Wealth Junior is a window breaker and not a wardrobe filler!

Till next time, Stay Stealthy!
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¹I was quite horrified to find that according to this website you are looking at forking out over R20k for a Shotgun! But that's a small price to pay for keeping the riff raff away from your princess.