Zeno's Bar & Grill

The recent issue of Stanford’s alumni magazine is a special issue on childhood (No, I did not go to Stanford. Yes, I stole it from a friend’s coffee table). Here are some interesting stats from the articles, the United Census Bureau, and the little-known but highly respected United Bureau of Melanie.

We are getting married at older ages…
Median age for first marriages in the U.S.:
Men (2004): 27.4 Men (1960): 22.8
Women (2004): 25.8 Women (1960):20.3
(U.S. Census Bureau)

…but I personally threw off the whole curve.
Melanie (1997): 30.0


Raising kids is not so much more expensive than it used to be.
Cost in dollars of raising a child for 17 years in 1960:25,230
Cost in dollars of raising a child for 17 years in 2000: 165,630
Percentage of increase adjusted for inflation: 13

Percentage of total cost spent on child care and education in 1960: 1
Percentage of total cost spent on child care and education in 2000:10


But today's kids watch way too much TV and don’t move out soon enough.
Percentage of children who live in a home where the TV is on “Always” or “Most of the time”: 36
Percentage of Americans ages 18-35 who live with their parents: 33
Percentage of Americans ages 18-35 who live with their parents who watch TV “Always” or “Most of the time”: ????

One thing that’s for certain is that those alumni magazines always make everyone else sound like they’re doing so much better than you are.
Percentage of Stanford alumni doing fabulous things and not living with their parents, according to the alumni notes at the back of the magazine: 100

--Melanie