Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for March 20, 2024

T.J. get lost, Brad dial it back and listen to her.

Y’all, do have a lot to talk about, nice to see both of them communicating to each other, they need to keep a open dialogue going.

T.J. get lost dam mit.

lame

Bwad’s mind is still back in middle school!!!

Didn’t you see Toni pick up the finance book, Brad? She wants to go over the budget and make plans that she would feel confident about starting a family. My bet is she will say their current rental is too small and they need to look at their finances and figure the range of home prices they can afford. She’s like that. Do homework first. Which is very sensible.

Toni – You don’t have to buy a house first to have a kid.

That’s a pretty nice house—except that the new room (Shannon’s bedroom) doesn’t quite fit in.

“Not tonight, dear—I have a bank account ache!”

Oh, crap. Three is not company, and Toni is going to “talk it down.”

First the finances folder an th pad of paper. Then the laptop to watch a dirty movie

Brad, if she says having a baby is too expensive.. just pass on the kid and get yourself a Lamborghini Murcielago instead. ;)

So will they have dessert in the bedroom before the week is over?

It’s easy for Brad to start a family. He doesn’t have to give up being a firefighter. What’s Toni going to do for money while she’s pregnant and nursing? Not fighting fires. Are there desk jobs at the fire department she could do? Does she want to do them? If she did, she’d probably already be doing them.

Here’s where Toni turns to her list of delay mechanisms, “It’s too late, the neighbors will hear us, TJ will hear us”. And Brad chooses his romantic music : The 1812 Overture, with lots of cannons going off. Not even the world will hear them.

Toni is a EMT? and Brad is firefighter?

See? TJ is settling for an asexual life here, being their chef and man servant, in a house that will soon be too small for him! It’s so weird and sad for a guy his age!

Toni’s got her head screwed on right. Brad’s workin on th other part

Looks like Toni is going to explain the economic parameters which will be associated with having a child. Time to crunch the numbers. There is a good chance that if Toni does convince Brad they need to build up a nest egg before starting a family that he will start working a second job when he is off duty to come up with the extra coin. Hopefully TJ does not hook him into one of his get rich quick schemes which he had been famous for back in the days. Occasionally one will pop up from time to time on the retro Luann strip like when he convinced Brad to go into the landscaping business while using all of Frank’s stuff and then mixed up the address of his first client……

This expression “start a family “ always grates on me. For most of us, having children is adding to our existing family of parents, siblings, etc.

The thing about having a kid is that you don’t know what you don’t know. There will be expenses coming that you have no idea are coming.

These are some the best jokes they’ve written in a while.

Toni doesn’t want kids. This is her chance to do the “we can’t afford it unless we get big promotions and raises“ excuse.

No sugar tonight, Brad.

Poor Brad.

If you wait until you can afford to have a kid, you never will.

Here we go again…

They both work in a profession where, on any given day, one or the other – or both- may not come home one day. They are each ready to accept that possibility, but what about an innocent child? That possibility carries massive baggage.

If G&K want to make this really interesting, they should finish out this week with Toni still not anywhere near ready to have kids and making a bunch of excuses, leaving the room, with TJ and Brad alone in the kitchen. TJ grins and says, “Patience, man!” Brad replies, “I have plenty of that… But it is darn near gone, and I’m beginning to reevaluate some of my life choices!”… The last panel on Saturday being an expressionless TJ standing there, with a sour-faced Brad sitting at the table and a dark cloud hanging over his head..

Got news for ya Brad, she’s not into the kid thing.

Sounds like they are gonna have to really manage their money if they want kids. Why else would Toni pull out their finance files?

First order of business is sending TJ packing.

For some reason I am reminded of a line from an old Guy Clark song “and that old time feeling draws circles around the block, like old women without children, holding hands with the clock.”

Brad – “No I think it’s desert time. I’ll see you later. Bye”

One would think that an hour of Shannon would inspire him to get vasectomized.

Finances? NEVER hold off having a family until you can afford it, because you will never have either.

SOMEbody has to be sensible about this. But don’t overdo it, Toni. At some point with things like this you just have to take the plunge.

But seriously- a kid changes every aspect of the parents’ relationship. A difficult kid can ruin a marriage. A kid is a tremendous responsibility. Toni understands that all too well.

Once they have kids, there will be less sex. Brad should think about that.

This is why Toni is amazing. She’s a serious person who wants to try to plan things to avoid problems as much as possible. But she does it by discussing together with others and looking for solutions that can work for everyone, not imposing her ideas sure that they are the only valid ones. Even though she first tried to cool Brad’s enthusiasm and she seemed unsure, it looks now like she’s thinking about how they can make having a child possible with much more conviction and seriousness than Brad.

Sound finances as foreplay? That works.

Extra expenses were not the main concern when we raised kids. One was special needs and had social and emotional issues. The other was an extreme extrovert while my husband and I are introverts . We already had a 3 bedroom house before we had kids, so we didn’t need a bigger house. Money was never a huge concern. We both kept the same cars for many years and didn’t spend money on expensive clothes or habits.

Man, aside from being beautiful, she’s super practical.

they should buy that house and add a second story for 3 more bedrooms and a bathroom. it would be cheaper than buying another house.

Ahh…bummer. Brad was kinda hoping Toni would be his laptop! :D

TJ get lost…Toni and Brad need to get begetting…

To put it in TJs terms, sounds like the building permit got revoked and is under review due to revenue.

if you wait until you can AFFORD a child….we’d have a substantially SMALLER population!

Well based on LuAnn universe time it hasn’t been that long. Even Shannon is about the same age

The decision to have a kid is usually not based on finances. . . .

This is getting serious.

“I know I just said we could maybe start trying to have a kid, but I’m still gonna do that thing where I change the subject every time you suggest physical intimacy. Maybe I’ll get pregnant by magic.”

I can tell all ‘y all, that being a GrandPa is the best job there is. I don’t change poopy diapers, I don’t put up with screaming kids, my job is to fill them full of chocolate. . . . and give them back!!!! Ya gotta go through the Parent thing first, but it you do a good job you get to graduate to being a GrandPa :-)))

Toni is being realistic. Starting with birth at a hospital (and yes insurance should cover most of it), you’re looking at about $10,000 these days. Babies are cute, but they come with a big price tag. According to a US Department of Agriculture report, the average middle-income family spends between $12,000 and $14,000 on child-related expenses each year.1 For newborns, the cost is higher. Some studies show numbers ranging from $20,000 to $50,000 for the child’s first year of life, depending on location and household income.

Toni is right. It would be so much easier to have children if you have a good income and not a lot of debt. It’s depressing when everything is financially challenging and you have to worry about how you’re going to give your kids the things they need and want.

I like the fact that Toni is being sensible. She wouldn’t be able to work as a firefighter for a time when she’s pregnant, then no work during maternity leave (unless her Dept offers paid time). then there’ll be daycare when she goes back, if she goes back. She’s being a good future parent by looking at finances, as what affects them will also affect the baby. Losing half your salary is a BIG thing, and daycare is not cheap!

The reality of having a kid verses the sheer emotional joy of it. Two worlds collide.

“Desert us. Bug off. Scram. Hasta la vista. Git.”

Kind of reminds me of “Idiocracy” where all of the intelligent folks would rationalize why not to have kids, eventually leaving no one but idiots running things. Toni, you will be the downfall of civilization!

Let’s recap. They both have great paying civil service jobs with lots of off time. They live in a house owned by Brad’s parents. If they are too dumb to kick out TJ, then they have a built in babysitter.

Now, that is a good line.

This might take a turn. Back on February 11th of 2017 Brad an Toni played a game of ‘strip budgeting’ an when they ran out of clothes they raced towards the bedroom

Patience, dear boy, patience…

Sometimes things aren’t what they seem.

Brad was ready for dessert at the Y

Enjoy that wine now,Toni….you’re coming up on 9 months abstinence

EXTRA EXPENSES ON HAVING A BABY

Crib. Disposable or cloth?baby food—regular or designer?And what if the kid doesn’t like spinach?

And specially deep bathtub to have the kid in and save a bundle on hospital bills.

@kenhense: “Toni – You don’t have to buy a house first to have a kid.”

No, but what most of the commenters here seem to be ignoring (unaware of?) is that there’s much more to “having” a kid than a house and-or money, and those other factors both impact and are impacted by money.

Having a child implies raising that child, i.e., teaching the child both skills and “appropriate” behavior. This requires both effort and time on the part of the parents. Especially in the first few years, this requires that at least one parent needs to be available at all times, even when not in close proximity. Both parents having full time jobs away from the child is not only unsatisfactory, but dangerous… dangerous to the child’s development, and possibly also to its physical safety.

I suspect that Toni is aware of this, and probably not only because of her experience with Shannon. Brad, on the other hand, does not seem to have even realized that having a child requires involvement, much less what that would entail. And that’s in spite of Shannon’s intrusions. And it’s not that he would expect Toni to do all the work; he hasn’t yet realized that “work” is involved.

They’ve been firefighters for years, they split the rent with TJ.

How can they be so broke?

Toni is being practical, very fact based, security in facts right? Brad is emotional along with his best friend TJ. Toni is also but her defense mechanism, her security is practicality. Its her body btw. What wins emotion or practiality?

Well said Brad. that’s mansplaining’ at its best.

I believe the cost of raising a child is $233,000 from conception to age 18

Wive tend to want their (A) Their own house (B) Money in good shape. And yes in that order prior to starting that new venture. After that bundle of joy arrives, man those bills start piling up quickly!!!

Does TJ ALWAYS have to butt in? They should ask him to leave long enough for them to have a private conversation.

T.J. …..GO. AWAY.

Two definitions of marital conversation— TJ and Brad assume the easier definition.

Brad gets the best line today.

TJ is trying to create mood; Brad wants to get on with it; Toni wants to talks about the cost of having and raising a child; somewhere there’s middle ground. At least she ’s thinking seriously about it but in a different way from Brad.

Mrs. Horner’s house is next door to the Halper’s house. July 12 2001

Mrs. Horner’s house was a two bedroom home. Thay converted a utility space into a bedroom for Shannon.

what a cute house; it’s not some ugly cul-de-sac job with giant garage door front and center.

This is where Vatican Roulette comes into play.