When we were raising our children as a very young family fifty years ago we did so in a state of genteel poverty.  We knew that our finances were stretched very tightly because that was our reality.  In a way we were in very good shape, for we owned a small bungalow, sufficient to our needs.  We found it difficult to pay the mortgages - two, a first and a second - along with taxes, utilities, food and other necessities.  Because money was scarce we lived very frugally.  In a manner that most present-day families would view as social deprivation.

But we didn't feel deprived, we felt fortunate, although a veneer of worried concern about meeting our obligations overlaid all of our day-to-day management.  At that time milk deliveries door-to-door were common, and our house had a little box at the side of the house where the milkman could leave butter, milk, eggs, bread if they were pre-ordered on time through the medium of a hastily written note left the day before in that little box.  Payment would be left within the box.  If the children ever received little gifts, a quarter-of-a-dollar, from a visiting family member for example, that would go into the milk-box.

We took the children to a family dentist.  At that time my husband's annual salary was just over $2,500; we thought if he ever hit the ceiling of $5,000 annual income we would be in really fine shape.  At that time too universal medicare was a social benefit feature of Canada; when our children were born, it was not yet a reality and we struggled to pay for the health fees.  Even though we did receive some benefits through a workplace group health plan.  A lot of time has passed from then to now.  We managed to afford somehow paying those dental fees on installments.  Our family of five got by.

Now, of course, we are in excellent financial shape.  At a time in life when we don't really need to be financially secure, as much as back then when we had three small children and the expenses involved in raising them and operating a home with all that requires, to be juggled and balanced on a very limited income.  But we did manage, somehow.  Needless to say, I stayed at home to raise our children; we had one income source.

My husband's semi-annual visit to our family dentist to get his teeth cleaned last week revealed that he had a few chipped teeth, and an old filling that needed to be renewed.  Admittedly this was the first real dental work on his teeth in years, other than regular cleaning.  The cost for a three-sided filling renewal, smoothing out the chips, and an X-ray came to over $750. 

This whopping professional fee for an hour of admittedly expert professional labour is amazing to us.  We wonder: how can families without dental insurance - which we now also have, which pays 90% of most dental procedures - pay for this needed professional service?