Skin in the Game: When Your Daughter Wants to Become an Egg Donor


DSH and I have similar philosophies with regard to money and finances. This has given us one less thing to argue about over the years.

Our five girls and their food babies

We both agreed and enforced similar habits with regard to earning and spending money with our children. First of all, once they reached 16 and earned their driver's licenses, they were required to get a "real" job. That is, one where they were scheduled to work, expected to show up on time, and do a job that resulted in earning a paycheck complete with all of the normal deductions. You know. Just like an adult.

It didn't just teach them an appreciation for the value of work, but also a myriad of other things. One of the things that we didn't allow was for them to just piss money away on any old thing. They were expected to save some and to pay some bills -- like gas for the car. They were also able to spend some, too. They had their own checking and savings accounts and debit cards early on and learned how to manage them.

DSH calls this having "skin in the game." He believes that when one has "skin in the game," i.e. like paying for at least part of their own college expenses, then they will value that thing more and as a result work harder to be successful at it.

Katy with eyebrow piercing

Which leads me to our current issue. Our rule for going away to college was that you were required to live in campus housing for at least the first two years. Studies show that students who do this, do better, academically in school. We personally feel that growing into adulthood is something that happens gradually so we loosen the reins gradually, too. That's just our approach and not the only one that is successful for sure.

By the third year of college, we expected our kids to be able to pay for their own room and board. Especially if they intended to live off campus. We never signed a lease for any of them. They had to figure out how to make it all work -- commuting, laundry, utilities, and now Internet, too.

If they want to act like adults, then they have to learn how to take care of adult things.

I'm getting to our issue. Really I am.


So, our youngest daughter has signed a lease to live off campus next school year. She will be a third year student, a junior, and she will be 21 by the time she starts the school year. She has a job when she is home for the Summer and during school breaks and has more than a little bit of money saved up, but she realizes that she will need to supplement this money in order to not use it all up before the end of the term.

So, she has been looking for jobs in her college town. On Craigslist.

There are a number of money-making opportunities on Craigslist.

Cleaning a house will get you $425. I can only imagine the condition that house is in for someone to be willing to pay that sum of money to have it cleaned.

I've heard of young women earning a LOT of money as dancers. Yes. Dancers in those types of places. I know someone who has done this, and it has helped her to make rent and meet some unexpected expenses from time to time.

But, the money-making venture that our baby found and has been researching is egg donation.

We aren't talking chicken eggs here.

Not These Eggs
Credit: wiredwitch.

We are talking her eggs. As in my DNA eggs. And DSH's DNA, too.

Apparently, college campuses are exactly the perfect spot to find the best egg donors.

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