Having children in the U.S. is an expensive proposition. A recent estimate found the average cost of raising a child through age 17 is now more than $300,000 because of soaring prices for gasoline, food, apparel, diapers and baby formula.
Indeed, angst over the expense of parenting often revolves around how much to spend on children’s clothes and whether to buy the expensive brand of formula, make baby food at home or clip coupons as the previous generation did. But the focus on the products that fill grocery carts at Target, Walmart, Buybuy Baby and the supermarket misses the factors that make children so expensive.
