Cost of Raising a Child
Author: Stef Daniel
Few parents consider the cost of raising a child in the beginning, beyond the cost of diapers, formula, clothes, and childcare. A recent study by the United States Department of Agriculture estimates that a dual parent family with a median income will spend just over $170,400 to raise ONE child from the ages of 0-17. This figure does not include any college or educational expense beyond the age of 17, and an average collegiate tuition rounds out to approximately $24,000 per year for an out-of-state college and approximately $10,000 for an in-state school. These are the figures for one child and any family with more than one child will spend much, much more. When you see this in black and white, it is almost amazing that any family can afford to have children.
According to this 2008 survey, the most expensive years are the ones between the ages of 15-17, when the average household can expect around $8,000 in total expenses! Food costs alone for one child from birth to the age of 17 totals a whopping $24,000, and this does not consider that many families shop haphazardly and without pinching pennies. Perhaps all those prepackaged snack foods and convenience foods should be quickly marked off the shopping list.
For parents who only have one child, the costs are drastically increased because research shows that single children households spend more money on their one child than most do. This just goes to prove and explain the "only child" syndrome that takes over many children who have no siblings in life. Consider also that the average cost for miscellaneous expenses is between $600 and $700 per year per age, where-as in reality miscellaneous expenses like softball uniforms, supplies, dancing costumes, birthday presents, parties, and holiday gifts can cost more than that in a single month, and you can easily see that the figures are deflated. If your child has medical or dental expenditures that are beyond the norm, thousands upon thousands of dollars can be added to these figures. No wonder so many parents are depressed!
Common sense should shift all of us to take a good hard look at these figures and try to imagine where all of this money is going. When mom and dad are putting off medical care of their own and avoiding buying new clothes or shoes for themselves so they can provide them for their children, they are leaving very little in the kitty with which to take care of themselves. $170,000 essentially divides into about $10,000 per year to raise one child. That is a decent chunk of annual income for a lot of people.
The cost of raising a child is perhaps one of the biggest reasons that young people these days feel like they are entitled to so much. They have spent a lifetime being given things that were beyond their means and traits like being frugal, thrifty, and cautious about money have been tossed out the window in an attempt to keep up with the Jone's! Thrift and salvation stores are over-run with brand named clothes and toys, many of which look like new - yet there are still plenty of parents willing to go and buy these items brand new and shiny (which only lasts a week) rather than save the money. Credit card debts are at all time highs and credit card millionaires are popping up all over the place. With the economic crunch, many of these people are losing their homes, cars, and jobs and finding solace in the fact that their 6-year-old is wearing $40 jeans and that their 16-year-old is driving a new, but modest Honda! What are we thinking?
There are other costs to raising children as well that are not accounted for in these figures. Savings for college, vacations, and other recreational activities are simply things that people do if they can. If they can't, they take out loans and end up paying for them until it is time to retire (if they are lucky). So when does life begin again for mom and dad, and how long should parents be expected to take on the financial responsibilities of their children? Even more concerning is the fact that all this giving and getting leads our children to be grown-ups and parents who do much of the same in order to keep up with what their own parents did for them. None of this makes for happy or content adults, and seeing as money issues are the #1 cause of divorce, parents are clearly spending too much. When the cost of raising a child becomes more than a relationship can bear and more than what is left in the bank, the time has come to pull in the reins and begin using common sense. No amount of "well adjusted" or "lucky" is worth ruining the lives of two people because they are lying awake wondering how in the heck they are going to afford all of this.
Most parents would admit that this is something they never think about in the beginning. In the middle of it, when the kids are around 8-12, you realize that every week there is some other menial expense of a fundraiser or need from school that parents are expected to foot the bill for. In a week's time, you can rack up hundreds of dollars worth of unforeseen extras and no matter how hard a parent tries, they will never get ahead unless they learn to say no. They will never teach their kids about gratitude unless they learn to say no. They will never last if they cannot learn the all-important and guilt-free ability to say no to every whim, wish, need, and want that a child can come up with.
It doesn't take a financial genius to see why so many people are in such financial trouble, and for what? When its $5 cheaper to buy a big bag of cheese puffs and some cheap Ziploc bags than it is to buy the neatly wrapped Frito-lay snack packs, why would any family choose the latter week after week? In just one year's time that equals well over a hundred dollars worth of cheese puffs. Are cheese puffs worth ruining your credit and is the pretentious gratitude of your child showing up at school with prewrapped cheese puffs really worth a divorce or financial strife! Obviously, there is much more than cheese puffs to be concerned with, but the attitude that parents have is universal and just as ignorant! The important things in life should be provided; however, a line has to be drawn at some point early on in the life of a child to show them that they can be rich and wealthy without having the latest and greatest gadget or brand! Down the road, the cost of raising children may not seem worth it to some when you realize what can be lost if you go about it with the wrong type of thinking.
