I reached a higher level of understanding today of something I’ve been told for quite some time. When we have kids, it’s going to be expensive.

Since being married, Meg and I have found ourselves noticing little aspects of our lives that we expect to be influenced by having kids. I know by now the parents reading this blog are laughing at me, saying out loud to your computer screens that I have no idea what I’m in for. Perhaps, but like I said, there are just some little things we notice here and there.

We went to breakfast this morning, hitting up some errands on the way home. One of them took us to Best Buy (hell yeah). Amazingly, Meg was in the mood to geek out and look around.

So how does this translate into having kids? As we were walking around, we started to notice just how under equipped we are to have kids right now. And by we, I honestly do mean both of us; this wasn’t just me geeking out. So far, we’ve come up with:

1. A new digital camera. Our current digital camera is pretty good, just a bit old. I really do like photography, and I realized with the amount of pictures taken at Melissa’s wedding that I’m going to be an order of magnitude worse when I have a kid. As we were looking at the cameras, I was looking at megapixels. Meg was trying to figure out how well it would fit into a diaper bag. I have a lot to learn.
2. A digital video camera. As much as I hate the yuppie parents who insist on recording every moment in their kids’ lives as if anyone else would care, I can see me doing the exact same thing. I’m also grossly out of shape when it comes to video camera research, as I had no idea just how damn small they are these days. I won’t even mention how Meg thought of other uses for a video camera as well. Bad Meg.
3. A Mac. This may seem out of nowhere, but it should be pretty obvious. If I have a digital video camera, it makes perfect sense to have a computer capable of video editing. And I’m definitely the type to waste hours putting together an overdone production piece of my boring kid playing in the park. The irritating part is that I’ll probably end up getting an Apple computer for this end, which goes against just about ever fiber of my zealous geek quasi-religious beliefs (the belief that basically goes Linux = good, Windows = bad, Apple = a joke). But in the end, all signs point to you can’t beat an Apple for this purpose. *sigh*
4. A DVD burner. Again, this should be pretty obvious. After spending hours editing my thrilling footage of my kid spitting up on JJ (I’m going to be MAD if I don’t get that recorded for posterity), and taking the time to put together a DVD menu, I’m naturally going to want to burn this to a DVD. This is less for my own usage and more for a virtually unlimited supply of birthday/christmas presents for my parents and grandparents. Yes, I know, I’m a visionary.
5. An HDTV. No, I’m not going to try to make up some sort of bullshit story about how this is for the kid. This one is for me. Interestingly enough, Meg was ready to walk out of Best Buy with one today. I was the one who put a stop to that. Before anyone gets the misconception that I have an ounce of self-discipline, realize it’s not a financial reason but more the fact that the technology is just now reaching the point I want it to be at with these TVs, and I’d rather wait for the next generation before I sink my money into one.

Honorable mention goes to a webcam, which my first reaction was to use to stream video of the kid’s room on the website. I thought this would be cute so I could see the kid from work, but then I remembered I work from home. I also realized it’d also be really creepy.

And to think, I thought the diapers were going to be the expensive part.