Working parents all over the country lament that fact that they don't get to spend enough time with their kids. Then they spend an average of more than $500 a month on daycare. So the obvious question rises: "Might an entrepreneurial parent be able to spend more time with their kids and still earn a decent income by operating a daycare center out of the home?"

In a piece on The Dollar Stretcher, daycare operator and industry expert Fiona Lohrenz looks at the financial advantages of this business. You'll spend less on gas and dining out, and there may be substantial tax savings to be had from operating a home-based business versus working a regular job.

Of course, starting a home daycare business is no simple task. There are plenty of regulations, so be sure to do your research. If you think this is an option you want to explore, you can get a copy of How to Start a Home-Based Day Care Business for 1 cent + shipping used on Amazon. Of course, check your local library first.

Last night, I overheard my six-year-old daughter make a comment to my wife, that got me thinking. Just what I can conclude from this, I'm still working out.

My daughter, Isabelle, saw a reference in some ad to Wii, the popular Nintendo game (as if I need to tell anyone what Wii is). And she made an off-hand comment to my wife that we can't afford to buy Wii.

It sort of stung for a variety of reasons. One, I'd like to think that I could afford to buy my girls a round-trip ticket to the Moon, if that's what they wanted. Two, I know Isabelle would love a Wii console and all of the games that go with it. Three, what killed me is that it isn't that I can't afford to buy a Wii; I just haven't decided if buying one is worth it to our family.

I mean, we only have so many disposable dollars in our income. We could buy a Wii, but then maybe we wouldn't go on a vacation this summer, or we'd go on a smaller one. Or maybe we could have our Wii and our vacation, too, but we'd decide to cut back somewhere else, whether on the restaurants or movies that we go to, or the books that we buy. It's an inexact science, just what our disposable income is, but I know we'd take a hit somewhere, even if we didn't necessarily feel like we were cutting back.

Many parents are going to be unhappy when they open up their stimulus check in the coming weeks and find that the IRS didn't include their children. Despite a government push for No Child Left Behind, the IRS left 350,000 or more families behind when it comes to the economic stimulus package. The good news is that the IRS has identified the problem and is taking steps to get new checks out to those affected.

The glitch was caused by paper filers not marking a certain box and also by errors in two commercial tax preparation programs. These issues human and computer, led the IRS calculations to miss the children when calculating the rebate amounts. Thankfully affected families do not need to take any action to get the rest of their stimulus package, the IRS will be mailing the additional check out in July.

This is likely to be a bummer to many people and I can see why this is annoying. Unfortunately the old adage, "garbage in, garbage out," applies to rebate processing as well. If you filed on paper and didn't check the box, be happy you get a second check in July. If you used one of the affected programs, live with the wait or email the company and ask for your money back. In the end I'd just be happy the tax software didn't make a bigger error setting you up for an audit!

You never know when something that gets under your skin is driving a lot of other people crazy too. It turned out that my post last week (Rules for Air Travel with Children) churned up strong feelings and some very good points. To all of you who wrote, thank you. It is, of course, what blogging is all about. I've read every single comment and would like to respond to some of what's been said.

First, there were parents who wrote about traveling with a child who has cancer, with an autistic child or the child who is en route home from something traumatic. Your points are important. None of us know what is going on in another person's life. Sometimes there are extenuating circumstances that we simply can't see. It's almost always worth erring in the direction of human decency and compassion - everywhere, including on airplanes. When your child is having a hard time, it may help to give the people sitting next to you a bit of information if the circumstances warrant it. I've seen people who I thought were cold or nasty turn into really nice human beings once they understood a situation.

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Raising children can be a challenge. It can be an even bigger challenge in a single income household. But perhaps the biggest challenge to successfully raising children is when one parent is required to do it alone. Aside from all the regular chores and details of child rearing there is one important question which must always be considered by families and single parents alike; Where is the money going to come from?

I'm very lucky in the fact that while my wife is a stay at home mom, something I consider a personal luxury for me, she's a very industrious woman and has never lacked personal drive. She has always been able to contribute to our financial health while at home wearing the badge of mom. However, she has me around for backup and she has found various income opportunities which haven't required her to meet an employer's arbitrary schedule. The situation is quite different when there is just one parent in the home. What exactly can single parents do to provide financial stability for their household? How do they cope? Where can they go?

A recent article by Forbes provides some employment suggestions for single parents. It highlighted some flexible career options, including sales, real estate, and health care. I'd like to expand on some of those suggestions and add a few of my own. Please don't consider any of these ideas to be gender specific. I believe that these ideas apply to single dads as well as single moms. After all, we all have to buy groceries to buy.

The other day I was going through my oldest daughter's book bag and found a note aimed at all of the parents. The school was asking each family to give their child a dollar to donate to a fund-raiser being held for a family in Cincinnati. I mentioned the fund-raiser to Isabelle, who is 6 and in kindergarten. She took in the information I gave her and then very sweetly and somewhat concerned asked, "Daddy, do we have a dollar?"

I smiled at the innocent question before thinking, "Well, in this household, it's probably a reasonable question." Still, I found it endearing, since even on our worst days, we generally have a dollar, maybe even several dollars... somewhere... in the couch cushions. And so I assured my daughter that I had a dollar, and she could take it to school.

She trotted off somewhere, and I started to admire the school. To help get parents to reach into their pockets, the school promised that the children whose parents participated would get to wear pajamas to school and participate in a party and see a movie. Since this was going to happen on Valentine's Day, when a party for the kids were already scheduled, I assumed that everyone would see the film and be in the party--but the kids whose families donated, would get to wear their night clothes.

And, of course, I was going to give Isabelle the dollar--to help her have a fun day and to know that we'd be helping a family. But I couldn't help think: Did they just bribe me in order to do a good deed?

What follows is a "My View" column that I wrote for the Cape Cod Times while I was in high school. I am posting it here as my response to Tennessee's decision to require financial literacy classes:

We are approaching a retirement crisis. The average baby boomer household has a net worth of about $100,000, less than one-sixth of what most experts agree is needed for retirement. According to a recent article by actor, economist and writer Ben Stein, retiring baby boomers are headed for a decline in their standard of living similar to the one that swept this country in the 1930s. With the Social Security system that was supposed to serve as a safety net in limbo, pundits are lining up to blame just about everyone for the boomers' dismal financial situation. Some blame the politicians. Others blame a materialistic consumer culture characterized by conspicuous consumption. But I think there's one institution that no one is talking about that deserves a giant share of the blame: schools.

Americans have made poor decisions with money (a savings rate of zero, compared with the average Chinese household's 40% savings rate), landing themselves in the precarious position they are now in. That's largely a result of financial illiteracy. Far from correcting this problem, the schools have ignored it, and kids still know nothing about money.

We know a wonderful Cape Cod family who have had more than 100 children. Most of them are grown now but even though they're edging up on 60, Bill and Marilyn still have the requisite 6 or 7 kids in their house.

As you can probably guess, Marilyn and Bill do foster care, at least some. They prefer to do guardianships and are on a first name basis with the judge who does adoptions. Last year , after three years of planning, they took more than 30 of those (mostly adult) children on a cruise. Bill earns a good income, he's our dentist, but you don't take 30 people on a cruise if you let money, as they used to say, "burn a hole in your pocket."

All the kids are involved in after-school activities and the family goes camping every summer. There are also no small number of appointments, school conferences and shopping trips. They are well known at BJ's, a trip they make monthly. The family travels in a full-size van.

When my sons were young and I didn't know what to do, I called Marilyn. Once you've raised 70 or 80 kids there isn't much you haven't figured out. I also try to notice what she does.

There is always a cooler (and you can be sure it isn't a small one) in the van. 100% of the time, Marilyn carries pre-packaged snacks -- juice boxes, peanut butter crackers, trail mix, etc. She doesn't have to think about it when she's getting six kids out the door because filling the cooler is a regular part of the routine.

It's not only less expensive than fast food. It's faster and of course, cheaper.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Stephen Moore described (subscription required) his teenage sons "classic withdrawal symptoms" when limited in their video game use. He rejected his 6-year-old son's pleas for a PlayStation.

That's learning.

No one was prepared when the video game surge took over childhood. If American children could no longer play in the woods or in the neighborhood, they could be found exercising their fingers at the video game. By high school weekends, it could go on all night. Worst of all for our family was the online game Everquest -- referred to by those in the know as Evercrack. Designed to be highly addictive - players "level up" -- it was the first irrefutable indicator that our older son was carrying some addictive genes. In the backyard bunkhouse, he and his friends could be found any hour of the night, computers plugged in, an empty box of Krispy Kremes beside them. More than once, we found him asleep at the computer. "What's the worst thing I ever did, Mom?" he once asked "Stay online all night?"

I feel compelled to followup on my rant earlier this week ("Kitty Couture: Money Down the Drain") by a reader reminding me that a preschool enrollment race is underway. This is especially true in New York City where 3 year-olds face heavy competition to be accepted at preschools with an annual tuition as high as $30,440. Forbes recently did a piece on the most expensive preschools in America.

It isn't the tuition that bothers me. Infinite money entitles people to whatever expenditures they choose. I don't care that by comparison to the Ethical Culture/Fieldston School rate, the preschool at New York City's prestigious Horace Mann is a more affordable...$26,880. I don't even care - although it is mystifying - that in a 2002 scandal, Smith Barney investment analyst Jack Grubman appeared to have raised the rating of a stock important to Citigroup just as the Citigroup CEO was putting in a good word for Grubman's twins at the prestigious 92ND Street Y Nursery School.

Grubman?

As a girl, I was a perfectionist. I can remember my boxes of watercolors, and how I obsessively rinsed my brushes between colors so as not to turn them into a rainbow of blacks and browns. Pastels were even more precious, and took a soft touch to blend them on paper, but not on the instrument itself. It's hard to create when you're spending your energy focused on keeping things neat and orderly.

And then I had kids.

The first time I let my two-year-old destroy a perfectly good watercolor box in a happy hour, I took lots of deep yoga breaths and then faced facts: I was not about to run back to the art supply store after every messy creation to get a new box. Painting in the black and brown spectrum didn't faze him at all. Why fight the power of a preschooler's exuberance?

So during my next trip to the Goodwill Bins, the outlet where everything is sold by the pound, I "picked" until I found some treasures. A very good quality, but heavily used, watercolor set, missing its brush. A treasure trove of fancy pastels, half of them dumped out of their box. In five minutes, I'd gathered up all the broken and chalky bits and ended up paying less than a dollar for my artistic treasure.

It turns out that the art supplies are now partially destroyed, and I often end up discovering a brilliantly-colored pastel chunk underfoot (note to mothers out there: don't clean up pastels with vinegar. It's like dying your floor). But I don't sweat: I rescued those supplies from the trash, so I can let go of my obsessive-compulsive self and just let the little boys be. Thrifting art supplies for little ones is the way to go.

This post was written as part of a series on how to thrift shop smarter. Read more on what to buy, and not to buy, at thrift stores.

After reading my "Kitty Couture" column this week, BloggingStocks producer Amey Stone asked that I write more about what parents can do to encourage healthy character formation in their children. It's a wonderful question that we don't often articulate. It's right at the center of what good parents are doing. Thank you for asking, Amey. It got me thinking.

In the early 1970's, when I was first working as a clinician with young children, three books combined to form my viewpoint about a parent's job.

The first is Peoplemaking, written by Virginia Satir, one of the founders of the family therapy movement. Satir talks about three parenting styles: authoritarian, permissive and authoritative. The authoritarian parent is the boss and obedience is a high priority. It's the ,"Do it because I said so" school of parenting. The permissive parent places a child's creativity and self-determination high and asserts little leadership. Finally, the authoritative parent leads by example and explanation. She is the boss 100% of the time but 99% of the time her children don't have to know it. Door number 3.

I have a bin in my basement. It's filled with brightly-colored plastic toys, each with dozens of buttons and a little plastic grate inside which is housed an electronic speaker. They've come from various sources -- a well-meaning aunt or uncle, a thrift store, a great sale at the supermarket -- and they've all ended in the same place. Banishment.

If someone else can't stand the noise, do you think you're going to be able to? Having been in this parent business for going-on-six years, I can personally vouchsafe for the typical parental behavior when faced with a Toy That Drives One Crazy. First step: Hide the toy. Second step: When the child finds the toy, again driving you crazy, you find a better hiding place, usually a garbage bag on the back porch or in your car trunk. Third step: Deliver bag stuffed with equally annoying toys to the nearest Goodwill or thrift store. Fourth step: Drive away fast, don't look back.

Chances are, that toy that's so alluring to your child in the thrift shop was victim to the four-step crazy-making toy program. You should definitely leave toys that make noise at the thrift store, where they can annoy the staff. After all, they're paid for this!

This post was written as part of a series on how to thrift shop smarter. Read more on what to buy, and not to buy, at thrift stores.

With all the unsettling news about the likelihood of a recession, you'll be relieved to know that the designer clothing market for the "stroller and grade school sets" is booming. Time Magazine recently devoted a feature story ("Downsizing Style. Why Kids are the latest consumers of pricey designer clothing and accessories") to haut couture for six-year olds.

The Time story carries a picture of "Little Miss Runway," dressed in designer everything, carrying shopping bags from Dolce & Gabbana and Juicy Couture. She looks outstanding - but this, after all, is an article about $300 Little Marc cashmere sweaters and $225 linen and cotton belted Safari dresses. The conclusion drawn is that kids are "getting more and more involved in choosing...what they wear" and that, "parents are expressing their own status by outfitting their kids who are more clothes conscious than ever."

Be forewarned that as a children's therapist, I am opposed on every conceivable ground. Financial. Child Psychology. Morals. Let's take these one at a time.

Money recently took a look at a couple -- the father earns six figures per year -- that's finding itself in a precarious financial position. And a big part of the problem is the couple's reckless spending on their pre-teen children: video games, clothing, ski lessons, etc.

The average upper-income family spends $182,000 on their children -- before they hit 18 and head off to college. Studies have shown that parents are more likely to slap down their plastic to indulge their kids then they are to spend on themselves.

The Money piece has some great tips and I would strongly suggest reading it if you're finding your kids bleeding you dry. Here's my advice: Once a kid hits 14, he can get a job and pay for his own video games and Abercrombie, if he so desires. So when it comes to curbing reckless discretionary spending, we're really talking about the pre-teen years.