Average cost to raise a child to 18 | 5 top reasons raising a child is worth it

Average cost to raise a child to 18

First, we’ll start by congratulating you on considering the average cost to raise a child to 18.

Believe it or not, there are some of us who didn’t think twice about how much a kid would cost per year, much less for an entire childhood.

Among the variations of those forward-looking enough to understand how much money they’ll need to raise a child until 18, there are parents-to-be searching Google for the following:

• Expense of raising a child
• Weekly cost of raising a child
• Average cost of a child per month
• Cost of raising a child per year
• First year expense of having a baby
• Cost of raising one child
• How much a kid costs in a lifetime
• Cost of having a second child
• Average cost to feed a child per day
• What salary is needed to raise a child
• How much does it cost to raise a child with a disability
• How much does raising 4 kids cost

So, as you can see, you’re not the only one who is calculating the cost of having a child. But, we also noticed that everyone looks at the cost of raising children differently. Some consider the short term expense. Others consider the long term expense. Some think about how many children they can afford. Others think specifically about food, clothing, and special situations like having a child with a disability.

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Some parents never consider the cost to raise a child to 18

Here is a real life anecdote about someone raising a family of 8.

I can honestly say, I NEVER had the thought that having or not having children should be a part of the financial equation for my future. 👶+👶+👶+👶+👶 = 💰💰💰💰💰

I admire those who think ahead and can see clearly how building a family will impact their finances.

But I guess I got my cart before the horse or else I thought based on my childhood experience that having children is a good thing, a natural progression of life, regardless of the financial commitment.

My parents had 4 children, I assumed I’d have at least 4.

My spouse had 8 siblings, and he was open to having as many as we could conceive.

So, between 2007 and 2014, I birthed 3 girls and 2 boys. Additionally, during that 7-year period, we adopted 3 of my spouse’s siblings. This is an average of adding a little over 1 child per year for 7 years.

This means, that for almost a decade of my life, from 27 to 34 years of age, my main investment was in building a family.

During this time, I supported our family IT business, worked part-time for churches as music director and continued to apply for “career” roles.

For a while, my prayers shifted to focus on my spouse’s financial achievements and career progression, rather than my own.

He steadily progressed to making a 6-figure income in addition to building his own business that has had many ups and downs and continues to grow.

God answered my prayers for my spouse to progress financially, while I took care of our children and held part-time jobs.

In summary, some people simply have children with the faith that things will just work out.

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Is the cost of children even worth it?

Raising children is hard work. Not only financially, but also emotionally. Even when you calculate the financial cost of having a child, there is no possible way to understand the cost of being a parent until you become one. This ambiguity may leave you wondering if having a child is even worth it. After all, there’s no turning back once you take the leap.

With that in mind, we’ll shift away from the cost of having children and provide 5 top reasons we believe having children is totally worth it.

Agree or disagree. Children or no children, we’ve all been a child before. Some of us had parents who saw the value of having children. Others of us had parents who seemed to regret their decision to build a family.

5 Top Reasons it’s worth it to build a family

1. You’re populating planet earth

There are many arguments for over-population in regard to climate change. However, if everyone stops having children now and the average life expectancy is 80, it would only take 80ish years to eliminate our entire population. Granted, this probably isn’t the best argument for continuing to procreate. But, what is the meaning of life if there is no more life? Even those who choose not to have a family are here because someone chose to birth them. Yes, there are sci-fi opportunities to create test tube babies in an artificial womb, but we’re not there yet. Creating a family — populating planet earth still provides a sense of purpose for many.

2. You’ll understand your parents better

Anyone who becomes a parent has an AHA! moment. Even if they had horrible parents, they know in the back of their mind that perhaps they should be a bit more forgiving. And for those who had awesome parents, you’ll definitely start to truly understand the sacrifices they made to raise you. Maybe you’ll go back and finally tell your parents thank you. You’ll start to give your own children the “When I was a kid…” speeches. You’ll relate to what your parents meant when they said, “I walked to school 5 miles barefoot in the snow…” or “I didn’t have internet growing up.” or “I didn’t have a smart phone until I was 30.” So, having children is for sure an eye opener that can help us to relate to our parents with more grace.

3. You can learn more about yourself

One of the most eye opening moments for a parent is seeing themselves in their children. Sometimes we don’t understand our flaws and their impact on others until we birth a child just like us. This helps us to grow in many ways. It might lead to us apologizing to our spouse because we now realize the pain we’ve inflicted on them based on our personality. It might help us strive to improve ourselves so that we become a better example to our children. After all, it’s more difficult to give our kids a lesson in how to behave when we’re behaving poorly. We’re not saying this process isn’t painful. It is excruciating at times. But, this growth brings a depth to life and reveals a mystery we would have otherwise never understood.

4. Kids are fun

In our humble opinion, there is nothing that compares to seeing the individuality of our children. They can be so much like us but not like us at all. They can turn out funny, artistic, stoic, stubborn, stylish, or anything really. Our children have a unique DNA that confounds us. It can be entertaining to watch our child do cartwheels when it was never a particular talent of ours. One of our children can be so hilarious they evoke a painful belly laugh in us. There’s a possibility our child picks up the guitar and magically becomes a musician, something we always admired. Watching kids grow up and into their own is a lot of fun. The value of observing our child’s morphosis can never be quantified.

5. Children provide continuity to life

Having children connects us to the past and future. Not only do we get to watch our kids grow, but grandparents get to see the fruit of their labor. This provides a continuity in life. Traditions, heirlooms, folklore are born along with continued procreation.

In summary, we owe our life to our parents. We wouldn’t even be able to consider the cost of having children, if it weren’t for our parent’s decision that children are worth it.

One last note, we’re not claiming that if you don’t have children, your life will lack meaning. Everyone can live a dynamic life regardless of their choice to have children or not.

No matter what we choose, our goal should be to live a life of love.

LoveLifeLinks.com believes raising children is a sure way to experience love.

Remember, you can feel love anywhere. Anytime. All the time.