We all have been bitten hard by the growing inflation….food, gas, rent, etc. ….there is another area that is not getting attention in these days of high inflation….the cost of raising a child.
Inflation’s damage is being felt not just one loaf of bread or gallon of gas at a time, but in big-picture expenses—such as the cost of raising a child. A new Brookings Institution estimate puts the total for raising a child through age 17 at $310,605. The estimate is based on government data, with the effects of inflation added on, for a married, middle-income couple with two children, the Wall Street Journal reports. That’s 9% higher than the estimate two years ago, before prices took off, though it leaves out college. “A lot of people are going to think twice before they have either a first child or a subsequent child because everything is costing more,” said Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow at Brookings.
Or parents might decide they have to work more, Sawhill said. Reducing expenses sounds like it would help, but many families already have hit that wall. “Switching cellphone plans, cutting back on eating out, helping your neighbor, buying from your local grocery store, your local farmers market,” a woman in Pittsburgh with one son said. “When you’ve done all those things naturally just to survive, you’ve run out and you’ve exhausted all of that.” The estimate, based on a child born in 2015, considers costs such as housing, food, clothing, health care, child care, diapers, haircuts, sports equipment, and dance lessons, per the Journal.
The study did not factor in race, but research has found Black families are hurt more by volatility in prices. Sawhill said lower-income families are affected by inflation more than wealthier people, per the Hill. Overall, she said, skyrocketing prices have made it “a greater burden than it used to be to have children.” One woman who just canceled her cable TV service said she and her husband had to call off an annual week long gathering at her home of the boys in her family: her three sons and their cousins. “It costs a lot to feed almost 10 boys,” she said.
Just a little something to think about….those figures do not include any college aspirations the child may have…those figures will make one start drinking.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 
Luckily, I am old, and have never had children. But I have two step-grandchildren, and I know their parents are struggling. My step-daughter is studying to be a Social Worker at university as a mature student aged 33, and working Friday-Sunday nights as a barmaid while her partner takes care of the kids. They are managing, but only just. We help them when we can.
I had it a lot easier in the 1970s.
Best wishes, Pete.
My granddaughter is putting a strain on my daughter since the death of her husband…..not as easy as when I was raising my daughter…….chuq
I feel really bad for any one who decides to raise a child in today’s troublesome climate. The negativity of the social order in general will surely make a cynic out of any kid who is exposed to it. And cynical kids grow into hate mongering adults and will most likely join the ranks of the even more hateful right wing of American politics. A child raised by parents who wish to instill real values into him or her is at a disadvantage because all the socially acceptable values have gone from positive to totally negative …and this sociological disaster will only lead to self-destructive tendencies at a later age. (Or it will lead to a general acceptance of the idea that to harm others is normal and acceptable if it serves some vengeful or revengeful agenda. We need video games that promote peace and love instead of killing and gore and we need more hugs and kisses from family members than pharmaceutical mood enhancers to treat attention deficit disorders and other imaginary maladies brought on by a broken system.
All good points John…….social media is not helping…..and the economy is definitely not helping the situation. chuq
My degree in Behavioral Science pays off again. LOL