The Rising Price of Parenthood Demands Real Solutions

New parents are inundated with advice upon the arrival of their bundle of joy. Feed the baby on demand. Pick up the baby when it cries. Don’t pick up the baby; you’ll spoil it. Make sure the baby sleeps only on its back; or, wait, tummy sleeping is OK after all. 

In America, another top tip? Open a college savings account NOW. 

Raising children in America has never been cheap – and now the most recent data says that raising a child now costs about $30,000 per year, amounting to almost $300,000 over 18 years. 

To be honest, that number seems low to me. Ask me how I know. 

My partner and I (unknowingly) took part in a mini Baby Boom when we had our child in 2006. And we did follow the financial advice, if not all the rest of the advice, and we opened a 529 in his first year of life. 

Eighteen years later, and after so many struggles, we were floored to learn: It wasn’t enough. 

We had made sacrifices early in his life, such as renting out our basement to cover the costs of daycare, only using public transportation for a while, and buying only used clothing and toys. 

To meet the college bill we were facing – and not hamper our son with a mountain of debt post degree – we sold our home this year to ensure we could cover all four years of an overpriced, but highly ranked university. 

Clearly, this was our choice, and we could have gone in a different direction. AND, we are immensely privileged to be a dual-income family. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, with the  2023 median household income being $80,610, my partner and I are in the top 15 percent of wage earners. 

So for the vast majority of Americans who are not as privileged as we are, the picture is clear: Parenthood is quickly becoming financially unviable. 

Consider: 

• Families now spend nearly 23 percent of their income annually on child-related expenses.
• Childcare expenses have risen by more than 50 percent in just two years.
• In 2024, center‑based childcare cost an average of $13,128 per child per year, a 29 percent increase since 2020.
• For lower-income households, the cost to raise a child to age 18 is around $241,106. For higher-income households, it’s as much as $513,722.
• A typical home-packed peanut butter and jelly lunch costing $6.15 in 2025 is now 6 percent higher due to tariffs and food-price inflation than last year.
• Over the last five years, food prices have surged 23 percent.

There should be no wonder then why politicians like Zohran Mamdani are having a moment. Mamdani has floated the idea of free, universal child care to all families across New York City, prioritized for low-income and single-parent households, as well as baby supply baskets with diapers, formula, and postpartum essentials to new parents as part of a broader effort to support families early on. On the other side, Vice President JD Vance has suggested ‘baby bonuses.’

The price of parenthood isn’t just a ‘moms’ problem.’ It’s a men’s issue, too. Healthier manhood means men see themselves not only as providers, but as equal caregivers – and when men can care without penalty, families are more stable, moms’ earnings rise, and kids do better.

Equimundo research shows that while Democratic voters are more likely to support care policies, a strong majority of Republican voters also back them. For example, 75-87 percent of Republican-leaning caregivers endorsed investments in child and elder care, paid leave, and minimum wage increases. Clearly, discussing men’s caregiving is an opportunity to break out of our political polarization and rally broad support around policies that every family needs.

This is a moment for all of us – moms, dads, grandparents, future parents, and even those who will never be parents – to lobby for more permanent, system-based changes. Baskets or bonuses sound great, but they don’t do much for the long term. 

Nationally, there are some bipartisan solutions proposed, such as tax credit enhancements and childcare workforce support. This is where we should set our sights: 

• Treat child care as essential infrastructure. Shift from a near-pure private market to sustained public funding that caps family payments (e.g., at ~7 percent of income), grows supply, and pays educators a living wage.
• Universal pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds. This initiative publicly funds early education, cutting childcare outlays while boosting school readiness and parental employment.
• Restore and expand a fully refundable child tax credit, adaptable to inflation. The tax credit delivers predictable monthly cash that families can use on diapers, rent, food, and care. Predictable cash lets families re-balance who works/cares month to month without defaulting to mom as the shock absorber.
• Implement national paid family and medical leave (and fair scheduling). Paid leave for all guarantees paid time to bond with a new child or recover from birth; predictable schedules reduce costly last-minute care gaps. Make part of the leave non-transferable to fathers (“use-it-or-lose-it”), and run a public campaign with employers to normalize men taking the full leave. Fair scheduling ends the ‘always on’ ideal worker norm that keeps dads out of day-to-day care.
• Housing reforms that matter for families. Half of U.S. renters are now cost-burdened (spending ≥30 percent of income on rent), with a record 22.4 million affected – leaving less room in the budget for child care and essentials. We need to expand housing choice vouchers for families and modernize zoning to allow more family-sized homes near jobs and transit.
• Bring dads into the equation as allies, because most already are. Equimundo’s research shows it is unequivocally clear that men who are actively and equitably involved in caregiving experience profound and multi-faceted benefits. These advantages are not merely social or emotional; they are deeply personal, encompassing improvements in physical, mental, and sexual health, as well as a demonstrated reduction in risk-taking behaviors. Engaged fathers consistently report that their caregiving roles are among their most significant sources of well-being, happiness, and a sense of purpose.

Parenthood shouldn’t require selling a home, taking on crushing debt, or pretending that care is a private problem to be solved with coupons and luck. The rising cost of raising kids is a policy choice – and we can choose differently. And healthier masculinities are part of the cost solution: When care is shared and supported, families’ time and money both go further. Baskets and bonuses may feel good in the moment, but durable systems build futures.