This is not a piece of parenting advice. This is a piece of advice about events that can make it difficult to parent.
I sometimes get flack for this, but I am a great promoter of insurance for parents. I am blessed to have wonderful health insurance that I have had for many years, which is good for me because if I applied now I would never be accepted due to my health issues. This insurance saves our budget every time I buy medical supplies, and I am so thankful for it, because my medical supply costs are through the roof. I never thought that I would be one of the people who used my medical insurance. I was a very healthy person with a healthy lifestyle who just so happened to develop a chronic illness.
I am also a great believer in renter’s and owner’s insurance. When my parents were in their twenties, their rented home and all of its contents burned. They were left with nothing. On Christmas Eve, this happened to a family in our neighborhood, a family with a small child. Again, they were left with nothing. They had no insurance. While we have sometimes struggled financially, we have always spent the $18 a month on our home insurance, because we need to know that we are covered and not homeless and penniless should our house get damaged.
We also have life insurance, and I’m in the process of seeking a flexible plan that will cover me more than I am covered through work. This will likely cost a lot, and I will need to assess if it is worth it. However, the father of one of the children in our school just passed away very unexpectedly, and the family was left struggling. He had no insurance. Now, they need to deal with the devastating loss and the financial ramifications of this loss.
If you can’t stand insurance, work to build an emergency fund. Even $40 a month will help you over time so that you are able to deal with emergencies.
Yes, I know that insurance will not guard you against bad things. However, as the parent of a small child, I know that we need to do our best to provide a stable home for that child. I know that we can have a hard time making ends meet sometimes, but I feel that our insurance is a good investment in that child’s security. As parents of preschoolers, we have a lot of time to go in this parenting gig, and we need somewhere to fall should disasters happen. So to me, insurance is a parenting issue. It’s for something that I hope will never happen, but it’s to enable my child and partner to live the best life possible should something terrible happen to our family.
Service announcement over.