I think it's a really good idea to spend lots more money in Afghanistan.

Hey, did you know it costs $800 a month to send your kid to kindergarten IN A PUBLIC SCHOOL?

Neither did I. I thought something like "Hey, public school is free, right? Because we value public education in this country, right?"

That was silly of me. I've finally begun researching kindergarten options. If we want Dutch to be educated/cared for longer than three (3) hours a day, we have to pay. It's at least $300 a month for her to be educated/cared for for six (6) hours a day, and at least $500 a month for her to be cared for long enough for her parents to work a regular workweek. We would pay about the same amount if she stayed in her current daycare, which has a kindergarten class, and we paid the "community" rate.

I'm not even going to talk about how much it would cost for Skipper to attend full time daycare. That makes me feel sick to my stomach. I'm sorry to beat a dead horse, but doesn't anybody out there in the Policy World think that childcare and education are KIND OF IMPORTANT?!?!?!

Of course, if neither Cook nor I have jobs, we won't NEED daycare. The whole family can escort Dutch to kindergarten every day, pick her up 3 hours later, and spend the rest of the day foraging for food before setting up our cardboard boxes in the evening. Ha, and then we wouldn't have to pay taxes either! HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!