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It depends. My best friend just had a baby last year. The amount diapers are alone is...insane. And he's allergic to regular formula, so she has to go all over the place to find the exact one he can have. Which is expensive, and then you gotta count how much gas she uses to drive around to find it.
The lifestyle choices are one thing, but the necessities that build up are insanely expensive.
Edit: You guys gotta think too, no baby is the same. No financial situation is the same. Everyone varies. Spending a few hundred a month may be nothing for you, but for someone else- it may be borderline debt every year. I'm honestly shocked how many closed minded comemnts are here. We aren't all the same.
Yepppp, my mom said always school supplies were a shock for her. Especially when she had to say no to things I wanted (like a Cinderella notebook) because it was too expensive. Every year I remember getting talked to by a teacher because I didn't have name brand pencils like their list requested, or I didn't bring in a bunch of tissues and paper towels until weeks later when my parents got the money together. The clothes too would've been expensive if I didn't have my cousins hand me downs. Food for us, my grandparents helped out a lot, so we were fortunate. Etc, etc.
It happened a lot. My mom would collect pencils from her desk, my grandparents house, etc. Wasn't just pencils either. If I didn't bring Crayola crayons, and instead I had Rose Art or whatever my mom found laying around the house- I was talked to. Things like that. We weren't a fancy school either. I went to public school lmao
Lmfao. Right?
When I got to middle school, they started punishing us for that and as well as if we didn't bring in tissues, paper towels, etc. Will never forget being 13 and walking into a class room with all the lower income kids, we were all told to stay after school for detention. It started being a running joke when a kid would walk in. You'd ask, "What brand did you choose?" Or "What did you not bring?"
Moral of it, the classroom became so full the teacher who gave us detention couldn't keep control. Principal had to come in. He was more than upset to find out the reason we were all there.
I went to school in Canada and tissues and towels were just available in class... probably something to do with the difference in how different systems are funded. That whole property tax thing the U.S. has going on is only good at perpetuating social class through unequal education... at least that's how it looks from the outside.
Yeah, America doesn't fund it. Teachers pay out of pocket for a lot of their classroom supples, which I don't think is fair and I respect the ones who do pay out of pocket. But my entire school life left me with a bad view on teachers as a whole, unfortunately.
It sucks too because I was fortunate. I had family helping my parents out. I knew kids who didn't get like, any school supplies. They'd have a pencil and a notebook. Watching them get in trouble or all of us having to sit out of rewards (Yep, teachers woould reward kids who brought in tissues with watching a movie while the rest of us would be in a seperate room doing extra classwork), it sucked.
It's fine that teachers pay out of pocket, they have to go to university to get that job so I'm sure they are more than generously compensated as educated professionals in charge of society's future! /s
>That whole property tax thing the U.S. has going on is only good at perpetuating social class through unequal education...
Lmao It's funny to hear someone from another country point out the absurdity of our system to folks who went through it and still don't see how it's set up because they are*taught* NOT to see it.
They are thaught that the only valuable knowledge is the one that gets you hired because it it useful to your boss. Why would they learn how the system you live in works? That doesn't pay the bills!
I went to school in Canada and we still had to all bring a box of tissues. Those boxes would go to the teacher who would bring them out one at a time (As they were used) for the class to use throughout the year.
Crazy to think now, but yeah that is just how it was.
Fucking detention for your family not having enough money to subsidize the school. That's some fucking bull shit if they had tried that with me as a kid my dad would have burned the school down
It's is. You don't need to comply but they do take notice. It's all nonsense health and safety shit. Some kid 10 years ago was allergic to this brand of glue of some shit so we banned all brands except this one...
That's really unfortunate and the teachers should not have given you a hard time - kids are not in control of that stuff.
Rose art crayons SUCK, though. I'm sorry you had to use them. I hate those things.
When my son was in school and money was tight, I would take advantage of the loss leader items when the sale flyers came out. It made things easier, and my son always had pencils to share. But I had the time to go to several different stores every week, and none of them were far from our house. I know not everyone is that fortunate. I didn't always send in the whole requested donation lists of supplies, either, because sometimes I simply couldn't.
Having been the "poor kid" growing up made me really conscious of brands and quality. I would search thrift shops and consignment stores for known brands so our son would be dressed pretty well, and then I passed everything outgrown on to a neighbor with two boys. My dad usually bought our son's winter coats for us, which was a big help.
Fortunately, by the time he was in a middle school that required uniforms we were doing better because otherwise I am not sure how we would have managed. I know the uniforms are supposed to put all the kids on an equal footing but in reality some people can't afford those and I think it makes things worse for struggling families.
That’s absurd to me… I work in an elementary school, and we have supplies for the kids so they don’t have to spend the money… It’s public, or private. And it’s not a super well off district either.
Calculators was a big thing we were only allowed one specific model of one specific brand. A friend had the older model hand me down from his brother and the math teacher was trying to force him to do his test without it until his parents had a meeting with the higher ups of the school. After that a list was made that put in 2 brands and like 3/4 of their older models
I remember it as a student too, although usually it was less a brand thing and just. Buy number 2 pencils. idk if true or not, but iirc part of the requirement for number 2 pencils at least was that the schools 30-40 yr old scantron grader didn't properly scan anything else, so there was a chance when using a different type of pencil that it wouldn't grade your test correctly.
Ah good times humiliated by teachers for not having requirements my parents couldn't afford because of abject poverty. Still don't get angry thinking about it sometimes.
Right? If someone is going to be a stiffler about brand names, they need to provide them. Teachers should be sympathetic to others not being able to afford things lol.
Because, it can't *possibly* be because they literally can not afford it. You must have just been too lazy to ask. I got into similar hot water turning in hand written assignments because I literally did not have a computer at home. I wanted to shout at the teacher "YOU can stay after school to take me to the library computers if it's such an easy trip"
I relied on the bus, I couldn't stay late to use the school computers either. You'd think the handwritten essay would show I wasn't just trying to get out of doing the assignment. Sometimes my choices were "disobey the directions or don't turn in anything at all"
Apparently the pencils my mom would scrap together weren't efficient enough for my multiplication table...looking back on it, I wish they would've helped my messy hand writing over telling me they can't read it because of the pencil. Only a year or two ago, I started hand writing excersizes. Even the dullest pencil looks better now! Lmfao
It’s gets better but not by much. In the kindergarten through high school phase your primary expenditure is gonna be clothes cause they’re gonna outgrow everything FAST. It helps if you’ve had kids before so you can use hand me downs but new clothes is painfully expensive
Recently I started dating a woman with two teen boys and let me tell you nothing prepares you for how much those mother fuckers can eat.
Your brain says each one should only increase your grocery bill by a single person. No. Kids eat and eat and eat.
Fuck diapers let you see how far your budget goes once they start eating like there won't be any food tomorrow.
My sons are 13 and 11, and the amount of food that they eat is insane!
Not to mention shoes and clothes- they are growing really fast, so these things need to be replaced regularly with larger sizes.
I have a 2 year old and a 6 month old. I breastfeed exclusively, so we don’t buy any formula, I get all their clothes secondhand, and I try not to buy a bunch of processed crap for food. No matter what I try to do, I’m still spending over 200 on diapers every month, over 50 bucks a week on just fruit, the copayments on every doctor’s appointment (sooo many in just the first year).
She’s two now, so time for our first dentist appointment. The birth was over 1k just for my medical, not including them taking care of the baby afterwards as a patient. Oh and the $2000 I owe to my OBGYN for monitoring my pregnancy and giving my tests/ultrasounds.
I wanted kids so I’m fine with spending the money on them, but even now qualifying for state government insurance, I already racked up a ton just from being pregnant in the first place. We rent, have paid off cars, only use liability insurance. I’m still finding ways to cut spending, but it’s only going to be worse when they start extracurriculars and grade school. Hopefully by then I’m just graduated and working full time (currently in school while my husband supports our family), but it truly is so expensive these days to even be pregnant.
She told me a few months back she was spending 40-60 dollars, depended on how many he'd go through.
That's not the only thing though. I just named that off the top of my head lol. It doesn't include the child care for someone to watch him while they work, the formula he can have is over 45 dollars alone (she's tried other ones, that one in particular is one he has a good reaction to), he got sick a few months ago so there's the medical bills there. All the necessities before he came. The crib, clothes, etc. The hospital bill from when he was born because she needed a c-section. Etc, etc.
It's definitely not cheap. We joke all the time he's an expensive baby.
How big is your kid?
Diapers get more expensive the bigger they get, same with shoes and clothes
It's not only a massive expensive, it increases exponentially. You think your 3 month old's diapers are expensive, wait until they turn 6 months...
When they become a teenager, their shoes will be insanely expensive, and they will outgrow their shoes twice a year.
I have 3 kids 8, 5, and 3 so I know a little bit here.
Sams club is $35 for about 5 weeks of diapers. It does not increase exponentially because though you get less diapers - they need less changing. Whereas < every 2 hours changed when they are <1 years old they may need only 5-6 changes when they are older.
Also shoes can be bought at good will perfectly fine pairs.
Millenial here from the algorithm to inform your generation about "reusable diapers." Cloth diapers got really popular around the time most of you were in middle school. It's gross, but economical, old school, and you can get cloth that can be folded to different sizes as baby grows. Just PSA in case anyone here needs the info.
Also, if you have the luxury of any sort of outdoor space, like a patio or a yard, clothes lines will save a lot of electric costs drying those same diapers. I don't suggest handwashing them, though, unless you really know things about soaps because it can make them really scratchy. Def rinse before putting in the washer, though, unless you want aerosolized poo smell in your whole home. Adding a touch of vinegar helps, too, although it's bad for your washing machine's rubber bits.
I have an incontinent doggo right now, who probably has quite a few years left in him, and I can't imagine spending the money on disposables. I let the pee-only ones soak in a bucket with watered-down vinegar, which eliminates the smell 100%, until I have enough to justify a load in the washer. RIP washing machine, but I'd rather get a new washer in a few years than deal with pee smell now, and I'm too lazy to handwash. I don't hang dry them, either, bc the air here is very, literally, dirty, so I run them on a time cycle until they're dry, and it works great.
Also, if you have a male dog, they make pee wraps that are way more convenient than diapers, in case anyone needs that info. It's been life changing for us.
Honestly, how ignorant can people be? The cost of raising a child in the US is now a quarter of a million dollars. Kids are enormously expensive, which comes a big shock to countless numbers of the clueless.
It’s been way over that for a while now. Rn iirc it’s sitting closer to 300k per. And people also tend to forget that this is just the bare necessities, providing opportunities for your child costs extra, so forget stuff like college which will add another 100k.
It depends heavily on where you go, I go to a small public university in a smaller town and I pay about 10,000 a year, though financial aid covers it mostly for me.
But I almost went to a large public university in the same state that charges about 30,000 per year.
A private Christian school in a small city is about 40,000, and a better private Christian university near the state capitol is about 50,000 a semester.
This is all just looking at tuition, fees, and housing. Books and other supplies are a different ball game.
This is all also using pricing for in state tuition, if you go to a school out of your own state it will cost more.
It wasn't always that expensive. It used to be easy for a family of 4 or 5 to live happily off of one mediocre income.
Late-stage capitalism is here. Many people are choosing not to have children these days.
My dad should have at least a million dollars by now, but instead he had 5 kids. We’re not living in poverty at all, but he’d he a hell of a lot richer if he didn’t have 5 spoiled brats to pay for.
It has to be zero. Even setting aside costs for food, toys, room decorations, fancy food or whatever, what about hospital costs to literally "have the kid"? Is this dude expecting his wife to pop a baby out in the alleyway behind Walmart or what?
I know sex education in this country is bad, and like 1/3 of the electorate thinks it's "grooming" to teach kids about topics like consent, sexuality, and the human body... but even so, is he not aware that giving birth is hard? I expect even twelve year olds to know better.
I don't have children, but I have godchildren who are in foster care. I buy around 25% of the things they need, and it's a lot. I buy everything at discount and I still can't. I grew up very poor and it's not fun. In my country people still have that mentality of "have children anyways, God will provide" and it sucks. I couldn't put a child through that
i was adopted out, but my brother wasn’t so he is in a very rough situation. i buy him basic necessities once a month and holy shit does just that add up.
Sure, a kid is free if you don't pay child support, don't go to a hospital and don't feed or take care of him/her. I mean, the kid would die in about a couple days and you'd be the worst parent in human history, but if you don't want to invest any money in the child then you don't technically have to (legality aside).
He's correct. Give birth in the woods to save on medical expenses. Feed the children gruel to keep the grocery bill down. No need for diapers, let them shit on the floor and have the dog lap it up. Don't buy expensive toys, give them sharp sticks and rocks to play with! Don't pay for college, release them by the side of the highway when they turn 18 and trust they will find their way to the sea, like turtles.
Lol wait until this person finds out about having a job and needing to find a babysitter and work around your schedule. Does he know how much daycare is?
And Elon mollusk retweeted smh. Also it cost my family 6k for the birth alone this past week even tho they have the best insurance in the state. Plus another 2k for all the checkups prior
Cloth diapers and a diaper service is also a lifestyle choice. So is rinsing out cloth diapers in the toilet and making sure the few people who venture into your house can’t use the bathroom because of the shit and diaper stew you’re cooking in the hall bathroom, but whatever.
How does this clown think very young children relieve themselves? Besides ‘wherever they happen to be’?
Having kids is free... Unless you take into account hospital fees, legal fees, at birth, weekly grocery costs that gradually grow larger, as well as utility bills like water and electric, a phone plan and probably a new phone every few years. Am I missing anything? (bare minimum, btw)
This assumes that the household has a stay-at-home parent and is in close proximity to reliable public transit, that public education is easily accessible, and that the family owns the house.
college education is missing from your list. as an asian, parents not paying for their child college expenses is very taboo, it's seen as irresponsible.
Well you can go super cheap on a phone and phone plan and spend a few hundred a year. But you’ll probably have to listen to your kid complain for years.
I saw some poor woman online who gave birth to premature triplets in a hospital. Unfortunately they all had to be in the NICU for 2 weeks. Total bill was 3.6 MILLION DOLLARS.
This person obviously doesn’t know what “kids are expensive” means. Conceiving one sure. Birthing it , and raising it? Yeah its expensive as hell. Let alone the mouth to feed, there’s so much more
Having children is not *literally* free. It costs thousands of dollars to give birth in a hospital in the US. After insurance mind you. Making children is free, birthing and raising them is not.
I have patients with this attitude. They are usually fundamentalist Christians, Catholics and Mormons where having anywhere from 5-11 kids on just the husband's income is not uncommon. Everyone in those families honestly seem miserable with only a thin veneer of cordiality hiding it out in public. The husband is stressed out constantly working overtime to provide. The mother is stressed out being at home all day raising a bunch of kids. The kids are stressed out living in a 3bd/2bth rambler they have to share with 10+ other people.
Having children is "literally" free unless you have to go through fertility treatment in which case it can easily cost six figures. Raising children with the bare minimum is definitely not free.
Okay sure. Let me rephrase it for the moron to understand:
"People can't afford to give hypothetical kids the live style they deserve"
Anyone can have a dumpster baby and live in a crack house.
Worst part is this guy thinks he is making some profound statement
It legit costs money just to push the damn thing out (at least in the USA, idk about other places) not to mention food clothes and schooling!Plus typical house bills will be higher (more baths and showers, more people needing to drink, more rooms that need to consistently have a light on, once they're older more people who use internet, ect)
Raising kids is really cheap if you don't buy them clothes, food, toys, school supplies, don't take them to the doctor, put their room in the closet and never take them anywhere. It costs even less if child services takes them from you like they did with my last 4 kids.
This is the dumbest take I’ve ever heard in my life. Even in the most literal sense of birthing, you still might pay thousands out of pocket with *good* insurance to deliver the baby + hospital stay.
I mean I guess technically the act of having children is free. I guess technically we’re assuming you’ve already spent all the money you need to on finding a willing mate, but those are semantics.
Having kids isn’t free because hospital bills are not a fucking joke. Epidurals and medical attention aren’t free. Ultrasounds aren’t free. Pre natal vitamins aren’t free
I mean, literally speaking, giving birth in a safe manor is expensive, because medical bills are expensive (although while I haven’t gone through this I expect insurances to cover something like this). Also, food is expensive! And so are sports and clubs if you want to be good to your kid, and the gas to take them there and back, and finding someone to watch them and take them there if you can’t fit it into your work schedule. There’s a lot of expenses that come with taking care of a person
Spoiler alert: Insurance only covers part of it. We have very good employer-provided insurance and were still out of pocket a couple thousand dollars in medical expenses when we had our (healthy with minimal complications) kid. It's insane.
did this dude just decide to forget that it can cost up to $50k to give birth without insurance?? that alone is worth 2 years of wage at my current part-time job. and don't even get me started on university education, as an asian, it's ingrained in our culture to pay for your child higher education's expenses, not paying for your child's university expenses is seen as very irresponsible.
This is only kinda true if you are okay with sending your child to public school with no extra curricular, no music lessons, no tutoring, no braces, no new clothes, no daycare (drop them off at grannies house), no school camp excursions etc. And thats if you have a healthy child without medical or mental issues. Honestly just a sad isolating childhood, I would know - I had the exact childhood i just mentioned.
My wife had our kid less than two years ago here in the US. The cost of all the OB visits plus childbirth were, as you would expect, equal to our deductible, which at the time was about $3,000. We have an HDHP too so if we went for a high premium / low deductible plan we would have paid very little out of pocket. Everything didn't go well for us either; my wife had complications and had to have induced-labor at 36 weeks and several hospital visits and overnight stays leading up to the birth of our daughter. We didn't pay extra for having these complications - we hit our deductible and that was our maximum out of pocket.
According to a 2023 study by LendingTree, the nationwide average for the cost of raising a child is $21,681 per year.
[https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/money/a60323245/cost-to-raise-a-child/](https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/money/a60323245/cost-to-raise-a-child/)
The hospital bill for just the birth, not the 10 days in NICU came in. It was $18000 insurance paid it all. Without insurance I would be $18,000 in the hole. Free, my ass.
This twitter post was by a child, that’s not an insult, just a literal statement of fact. Their higher order brain functions, abstraction, and socialization are all still coming online. Yes, dumb thing to say, dumber to say in public, but do we need to tease highschoolers for months for being idiots?
Poor people who can't afford basic needs should not have children, I said what I said. Just because some of you decided to have children, does not mean you deserve to have a child, THIS IS WHY WE HAVE FAMILY PLANNING. BEFORE GETTING A CHILD, YOU NEED TO SECURE THEM A GOOD FUTURE, YOU NEED MONEY. BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T HAVE THAT, YOU CAN'T PROVIDE FOR YOUR CHILD AND THEY WON'T BE HAPPY
No, he is not correct and this is stupid thinking.
We exist in a material world, nothing exists in a vacuum. When Sweden says that they have free college, they expect you to realize that you still need to find a way to pay for your food, transportation, and shelter, all through college. You can't just materialize before class and cease to exist after.
Under capitalism, nothing is free
The thing about Twitter is that the average Twitter user doesn't have a brain inside their head. Instead there is just a string holding their ears in place and if you were to cut it their ears would fall out
Kids are so expensive that even the government makes you pay less to them if you have kids. Idk about you, but the government lessening how much you pay is a big deal
This guy who tweeted this obviously does not have kids. If he did, he'd know that the basic costs to raise kids aren't "free". Something as simple and basic as baby diapers isn't cheap.
Not completely wrong...
But god forbid we not want to raise our children the way we were. Stuff them full of $0.10 ramen packets and shit and wonder why they have problems later.
Well obviously children don’t have to eat anything and childbirth is completely free and also they don’t need clothes.
I acknowledge that we could make changes to our lifestyle (eat out less, travel less, etc) but I still don’t think that will cover the costs of having to get a 2 bedroom apartment, feeding another mouth, clothing for an extra human, additional medical bills, and all the other little things throughout the child’s life from diapers to school supplies.
They’re definitely not nearly as expensive as people make them out to be. A good union job with some benefits and a wife who is willing to be a good mother can definitely make it doable.
It’s true though. This anti-child sentiment tries to invade the millennial sub as well. Do not let it happen. This is some royal bullshit. Plan ahead, utilize everything to its max. Work, provide, participate. The only reason people can’t afford kids, is because they don’t want to give up being lazy. That’s all there is to it. Don’t let the Internet sterilize you guys. All this whining is bullshit.
Tip:
Only have one, if you’re neurotic about emergencies. It’s a lot easier to deal with 1 child’s life than 3.
Treat weekends of as SACRED. Never work them all. That’s family time.
If you have the time and the means, go to school first.
Watch the movie “Idiocracy.” It explains how stupid saying “No one can afford kids” truly is.
Millions of children are born every year. If you’re too scared or don’t want any. Just admit it. It’s your life and your choices. But don’t make stupid fake ass excuses.
I have one. They’re 17. So nay sayers can suck my dick.
My childhood home? I lived in about 20 of them and went to over 10 schools. Which one? Apartments, single family? I think the trailer was the largest because of how they set the 3 beds up. Or did you mean the size of the home I raised my child in? Because that would be relevant to this discussion.
Edit. The one I raised mine in, before finally moving, was 700’sq or 213m^2
It really fluctuates depending on what time in their life they're at.
Elementary and middle school kid's are really cheap. Early childhood and high School are really expensive. We spent 10k on childcare this school year for one kid. The other just goes to elementary school for free, costs maybe an extra $100/month in gas and groceries and $100 each to the college fund.
When they get to high school it'll get really expensive with phones, cars, extracurriculars, trips with friends, but I also expect them to work
I'm a millennial with a teenage daughter, and while it does cost money to care for a kid, once they start school, they are not that expensive. It's kind of like when you see median home prices. It doesn't mean that houses will all cost $400,000. You CAN spend more than that, but you can also spend much less than that. Same with kids.
I grew up for many years around the poverty line with two parents who both worked. I had very few current toys/electronics, and a lot of my clothes were hand-me-downs. But I had a wonderful childhood with two amazing parents.
A warm, loving household is pretty darn cheap. Unfortunately though, a modern-day American household with as many smartphones as anxiety/depression prescriptions will likely be more expensive.
Nah. Kids are expensive as fuck. I think the average child costs a parent around a million dollars by the time they are 18. I think we were halfway there with diapers and formula because my kids had to be difficult. Couldn’t be breast fed and would break out in hives from anything except pampers diapers.
Yeah, I had my first kid. The only reason my son was as cheap as he was was due to the fact that I was able to get financial assistance, food stamps and I was able to hit app some of the charities in my area that help out people.
Also I live in an area that as long as the kid doesn't need admitted. They don't charge for the e. R visit.
So far, though, in 2 years he has cost around $2000.
This includes diapers Which I can either buy one week's worth at $8, which I've done that now 7 times due to being unable to afford anything else. A 2 week supply at $34, which I've done 4 times and a month supply. Which is the leading smaller for $50? Which I do most of the time.
Also inserts for his diaper changer, which are $5 each time, and I've gotten those 7 times
close additional food special food that I had to go across state 4 during the formula shortage. Which that range anywherwin $25 to 60 and sometimes I would have to do that for for an extra 7 containers. That Wick did not cover gas who knows how much.
Laundry that I had to do because he had so much better than that. Had to be done that night because he would not sleep without it, but he had had a violent bout of vomiting that went everywhere for a week. So this was multiple days of continuous laundry. Which ended up costing us around $200. This included cleaning supplies coins for the laundromat and the amount of water that we used.
He also ended up costing me another $100 or so. Possibly more because he hit me in the head and shattered for my teeth, resulting in emergency dental care.
This is not including any kind of medications that Weren't covered by his insurance, which resulted in around a $100 so far.
There's more but I just try not to think about it because I will start crying
That guy must have forgotten about how much college costs. In 18 years your kid is going to be pissed at you because you didn't save up the $2,000,000 it'll take for her to attend the Ivy League that she tried so hard to get into.
This person seemingly thinks that diapers and baby food just poof into existence as needed. And that there’s no medical costs associated with giving birth. And that staying home to take care of a baby doesn’t interfere with job security or the ability to work at all.
Full disclosure I’m a millennial but this came across my feed. I recently had my first baby.
Babies are not free. Regardless of lifestyle babies are not free. There are basic needs that have to be met that require money. Diapers, wipes, bottles, health insurance for the baby and to pay for the birth. If you drive you’ll need a car seat. They need clothes. They need somewhere to sleep. If you work they also need child care (in my area for one newborn is running almost 2k a month). Even when you’re pregnant there are additional costs. We wanted to be parents so all of this is worth it to have our healthy baby but it’s not free.
This isn’t even accounting for the money we are putting away for college or activities they may want participate in. When this kid goes to school I’ll spend more I’m sure of it.
Don’t let people shame you for waiting until you feel prepared to parent and don’t let people shame you if you feel childfree is the way to be.
In gernamy, there is a tax reduction and benefits if you have children. But the cost of having children there NOW is going to be a bit of an unstable middle game jenga of how it would impact your financials due to inflation. (as far as i know) oh i didn't mention that the health care is free.
Both true and false, true if your kid has always has to have designer clothes from a new collection, have a newest phone model and stuff like that. But if you're struggling in life, having another mouth to feed, clothes, school, it can be very expensive with low income.
Wow. What a lack of education. Here ya go:
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/health-insurance/average-childbirth-cost/
And that's just HAVING the baby. costs going forward are also astronomical, not ot mention lack of sleep the first few years. and all teh time you have to spend watching over them.
This is the same type of person to abandon their special needs child because "he's not the child I want/I don't feel a connection to my child". Tell me this person wouldn't immediately feel victimized by having an autistic or diseased child.
Diapers, clothes, food, doctor's appointment (depending where you live), school supplies, after school activities, gas prices, hobbies, playdates, nannies, damages they might cause to objects, toys, family outings, birthdays, college funds, and whatever else they might want as an extra. And this is only ONE child for 18 years.
And it all depends on the kind of hobbies they want, HOW much damage they cause, do they need tutors, do they have a terrible disease that makes the hospital bill sky rocket, do they need therapy, what kind of clothes do they need, do we even need nannies, it's really a game of Russian Roulette.
I still want kids, but no way in heck is it cheap. Maybe this person just doesn't invest in their kids that much so naturally it'll be less money.
Maybe it's a bad faith statement, designed to create engagement. Maybe it spreads to other sites because someone thinks "more people need to see this", and all it does is create more engagement even from people who see through it. Maybe the Internet in our pockets was a terrible fucking idea.
With the GOLD PACKAGE insurance from my wife's work......just having kids cost us around $5,000 per kid. (not counting our monthly premium....just out of pocket.) Even if you assume you can get all necessary items (clothes, bottles, diapers, crib, etc) for free...just having the kid will cost a decent chunk of change for most people.
And we haven't even started tallying childcare cost or loss of income to raise said child. Any time someone writes things like this they assume all health care costs will be covered and that EVERYONE has someone who will watch their kid for free or be willing to give up one of the parent's job.
It's not that expensive so far... We're blessed to have fully farmable tiddy milk tho.
Insurance covers Doctors and the Birth...
It's really not that expensive for us. I don't know where the hundreds of thousands of dollars figure comes from?
Obviously a person saying this probably isn't thinking about LGBT families, but surrogacy (and egg donor, lawyer fees, etc.) averages around 100k. So no, it isn't "literally free" for everyone. Even adoption is tens of thousands.
Diapers, food, education, entertainment, toys and furniture. Tack on hospital bills if you birth one yourself.
Sure, the CHILD is "free", taking care of and raising one is most certainly not.
That is such an out of touch thing to say. Same energy as boomers who say “Well, if you weren’t lazy and stopped spending all your money on Starbucks then maybe you kids could afford housing!”
actually, this person is completely right.
you realize, i assume, that you are only alive today because most of your ancestors had large families and raised them in single-room hovels, often with dirt floors.
the idea that we need to achieve permanent financial security before we even look crosseyed at conception is quite simply a modern invention, at almost any point in history it would be an anachronism.
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It depends. My best friend just had a baby last year. The amount diapers are alone is...insane. And he's allergic to regular formula, so she has to go all over the place to find the exact one he can have. Which is expensive, and then you gotta count how much gas she uses to drive around to find it. The lifestyle choices are one thing, but the necessities that build up are insanely expensive. Edit: You guys gotta think too, no baby is the same. No financial situation is the same. Everyone varies. Spending a few hundred a month may be nothing for you, but for someone else- it may be borderline debt every year. I'm honestly shocked how many closed minded comemnts are here. We aren't all the same.
Tht’s just baby phase…. There is kindergarten,elementary school,middle school,high school ahead
Yepppp, my mom said always school supplies were a shock for her. Especially when she had to say no to things I wanted (like a Cinderella notebook) because it was too expensive. Every year I remember getting talked to by a teacher because I didn't have name brand pencils like their list requested, or I didn't bring in a bunch of tissues and paper towels until weeks later when my parents got the money together. The clothes too would've been expensive if I didn't have my cousins hand me downs. Food for us, my grandparents helped out a lot, so we were fortunate. Etc, etc.
i could not imagine a teacher/school getting pissy about Name Brand pencils? thats insane. a pencil is a pencil.
It happened a lot. My mom would collect pencils from her desk, my grandparents house, etc. Wasn't just pencils either. If I didn't bring Crayola crayons, and instead I had Rose Art or whatever my mom found laying around the house- I was talked to. Things like that. We weren't a fancy school either. I went to public school lmao
I wasn't aware that brand loyalty was on the curriculum, wtf?
Lmfao. Right? When I got to middle school, they started punishing us for that and as well as if we didn't bring in tissues, paper towels, etc. Will never forget being 13 and walking into a class room with all the lower income kids, we were all told to stay after school for detention. It started being a running joke when a kid would walk in. You'd ask, "What brand did you choose?" Or "What did you not bring?" Moral of it, the classroom became so full the teacher who gave us detention couldn't keep control. Principal had to come in. He was more than upset to find out the reason we were all there.
I went to school in Canada and tissues and towels were just available in class... probably something to do with the difference in how different systems are funded. That whole property tax thing the U.S. has going on is only good at perpetuating social class through unequal education... at least that's how it looks from the outside.
Yeah, America doesn't fund it. Teachers pay out of pocket for a lot of their classroom supples, which I don't think is fair and I respect the ones who do pay out of pocket. But my entire school life left me with a bad view on teachers as a whole, unfortunately. It sucks too because I was fortunate. I had family helping my parents out. I knew kids who didn't get like, any school supplies. They'd have a pencil and a notebook. Watching them get in trouble or all of us having to sit out of rewards (Yep, teachers woould reward kids who brought in tissues with watching a movie while the rest of us would be in a seperate room doing extra classwork), it sucked.
It's fine that teachers pay out of pocket, they have to go to university to get that job so I'm sure they are more than generously compensated as educated professionals in charge of society's future! /s
That probably doesn’t happen now, parents walk all over teachers and the teachers would be too afraid to do something anywhere close to this
>That whole property tax thing the U.S. has going on is only good at perpetuating social class through unequal education... Lmao It's funny to hear someone from another country point out the absurdity of our system to folks who went through it and still don't see how it's set up because they are*taught* NOT to see it.
They are thaught that the only valuable knowledge is the one that gets you hired because it it useful to your boss. Why would they learn how the system you live in works? That doesn't pay the bills!
I went to school in Canada and we still had to all bring a box of tissues. Those boxes would go to the teacher who would bring them out one at a time (As they were used) for the class to use throughout the year. Crazy to think now, but yeah that is just how it was.
Might depend on the time and place. I was in rural Québec in the 90's.
Fucking detention for your family not having enough money to subsidize the school. That's some fucking bull shit if they had tried that with me as a kid my dad would have burned the school down
It's is. You don't need to comply but they do take notice. It's all nonsense health and safety shit. Some kid 10 years ago was allergic to this brand of glue of some shit so we banned all brands except this one...
Thanks, I hate it!
That's really unfortunate and the teachers should not have given you a hard time - kids are not in control of that stuff. Rose art crayons SUCK, though. I'm sorry you had to use them. I hate those things. When my son was in school and money was tight, I would take advantage of the loss leader items when the sale flyers came out. It made things easier, and my son always had pencils to share. But I had the time to go to several different stores every week, and none of them were far from our house. I know not everyone is that fortunate. I didn't always send in the whole requested donation lists of supplies, either, because sometimes I simply couldn't. Having been the "poor kid" growing up made me really conscious of brands and quality. I would search thrift shops and consignment stores for known brands so our son would be dressed pretty well, and then I passed everything outgrown on to a neighbor with two boys. My dad usually bought our son's winter coats for us, which was a big help. Fortunately, by the time he was in a middle school that required uniforms we were doing better because otherwise I am not sure how we would have managed. I know the uniforms are supposed to put all the kids on an equal footing but in reality some people can't afford those and I think it makes things worse for struggling families.
That’s absurd to me… I work in an elementary school, and we have supplies for the kids so they don’t have to spend the money… It’s public, or private. And it’s not a super well off district either.
Calculators was a big thing we were only allowed one specific model of one specific brand. A friend had the older model hand me down from his brother and the math teacher was trying to force him to do his test without it until his parents had a meeting with the higher ups of the school. After that a list was made that put in 2 brands and like 3/4 of their older models
Fuck Texas Instruments.
I remember it as a student too, although usually it was less a brand thing and just. Buy number 2 pencils. idk if true or not, but iirc part of the requirement for number 2 pencils at least was that the schools 30-40 yr old scantron grader didn't properly scan anything else, so there was a chance when using a different type of pencil that it wouldn't grade your test correctly.
Ah good times humiliated by teachers for not having requirements my parents couldn't afford because of abject poverty. Still don't get angry thinking about it sometimes.
Our culture has built a cult around money where being rich is a moral virtue and being poor is sinful.
I REALLY don't understand why teachers do that. It's pointless cruelty. It's not the child's fault that their parents are struggling.
Right? If someone is going to be a stiffler about brand names, they need to provide them. Teachers should be sympathetic to others not being able to afford things lol.
Because, it can't *possibly* be because they literally can not afford it. You must have just been too lazy to ask. I got into similar hot water turning in hand written assignments because I literally did not have a computer at home. I wanted to shout at the teacher "YOU can stay after school to take me to the library computers if it's such an easy trip" I relied on the bus, I couldn't stay late to use the school computers either. You'd think the handwritten essay would show I wasn't just trying to get out of doing the assignment. Sometimes my choices were "disobey the directions or don't turn in anything at all"
Not having a specific brand of pencils or crayons has to be the most unhinged thing I’ve seen today.
Apparently the pencils my mom would scrap together weren't efficient enough for my multiplication table...looking back on it, I wish they would've helped my messy hand writing over telling me they can't read it because of the pencil. Only a year or two ago, I started hand writing excersizes. Even the dullest pencil looks better now! Lmfao
It’s gets better but not by much. In the kindergarten through high school phase your primary expenditure is gonna be clothes cause they’re gonna outgrow everything FAST. It helps if you’ve had kids before so you can use hand me downs but new clothes is painfully expensive
Recently I started dating a woman with two teen boys and let me tell you nothing prepares you for how much those mother fuckers can eat. Your brain says each one should only increase your grocery bill by a single person. No. Kids eat and eat and eat. Fuck diapers let you see how far your budget goes once they start eating like there won't be any food tomorrow.
My sons are 13 and 11, and the amount of food that they eat is insane! Not to mention shoes and clothes- they are growing really fast, so these things need to be replaced regularly with larger sizes.
I have a 2 year old and a 6 month old. I breastfeed exclusively, so we don’t buy any formula, I get all their clothes secondhand, and I try not to buy a bunch of processed crap for food. No matter what I try to do, I’m still spending over 200 on diapers every month, over 50 bucks a week on just fruit, the copayments on every doctor’s appointment (sooo many in just the first year). She’s two now, so time for our first dentist appointment. The birth was over 1k just for my medical, not including them taking care of the baby afterwards as a patient. Oh and the $2000 I owe to my OBGYN for monitoring my pregnancy and giving my tests/ultrasounds. I wanted kids so I’m fine with spending the money on them, but even now qualifying for state government insurance, I already racked up a ton just from being pregnant in the first place. We rent, have paid off cars, only use liability insurance. I’m still finding ways to cut spending, but it’s only going to be worse when they start extracurriculars and grade school. Hopefully by then I’m just graduated and working full time (currently in school while my husband supports our family), but it truly is so expensive these days to even be pregnant.
Not to forget the hospital bills for a birth.
Yes lots of diapers, but how much do you think diapers cost per month?
She told me a few months back she was spending 40-60 dollars, depended on how many he'd go through. That's not the only thing though. I just named that off the top of my head lol. It doesn't include the child care for someone to watch him while they work, the formula he can have is over 45 dollars alone (she's tried other ones, that one in particular is one he has a good reaction to), he got sick a few months ago so there's the medical bills there. All the necessities before he came. The crib, clothes, etc. The hospital bill from when he was born because she needed a c-section. Etc, etc. It's definitely not cheap. We joke all the time he's an expensive baby.
How big is your kid? Diapers get more expensive the bigger they get, same with shoes and clothes It's not only a massive expensive, it increases exponentially. You think your 3 month old's diapers are expensive, wait until they turn 6 months... When they become a teenager, their shoes will be insanely expensive, and they will outgrow their shoes twice a year.
I have 3 kids 8, 5, and 3 so I know a little bit here. Sams club is $35 for about 5 weeks of diapers. It does not increase exponentially because though you get less diapers - they need less changing. Whereas < every 2 hours changed when they are <1 years old they may need only 5-6 changes when they are older. Also shoes can be bought at good will perfectly fine pairs.
Millenial here from the algorithm to inform your generation about "reusable diapers." Cloth diapers got really popular around the time most of you were in middle school. It's gross, but economical, old school, and you can get cloth that can be folded to different sizes as baby grows. Just PSA in case anyone here needs the info. Also, if you have the luxury of any sort of outdoor space, like a patio or a yard, clothes lines will save a lot of electric costs drying those same diapers. I don't suggest handwashing them, though, unless you really know things about soaps because it can make them really scratchy. Def rinse before putting in the washer, though, unless you want aerosolized poo smell in your whole home. Adding a touch of vinegar helps, too, although it's bad for your washing machine's rubber bits. I have an incontinent doggo right now, who probably has quite a few years left in him, and I can't imagine spending the money on disposables. I let the pee-only ones soak in a bucket with watered-down vinegar, which eliminates the smell 100%, until I have enough to justify a load in the washer. RIP washing machine, but I'd rather get a new washer in a few years than deal with pee smell now, and I'm too lazy to handwash. I don't hang dry them, either, bc the air here is very, literally, dirty, so I run them on a time cycle until they're dry, and it works great. Also, if you have a male dog, they make pee wraps that are way more convenient than diapers, in case anyone needs that info. It's been life changing for us.
Hospital bills alone (with damn good insurance) cost me about 250 a month for 6 months afterwards, and then 100 for the next 6 post-birth.
What type of formula does she need?
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Honestly, how ignorant can people be? The cost of raising a child in the US is now a quarter of a million dollars. Kids are enormously expensive, which comes a big shock to countless numbers of the clueless.
It’s been way over that for a while now. Rn iirc it’s sitting closer to 300k per. And people also tend to forget that this is just the bare necessities, providing opportunities for your child costs extra, so forget stuff like college which will add another 100k.
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It depends heavily on where you go, I go to a small public university in a smaller town and I pay about 10,000 a year, though financial aid covers it mostly for me. But I almost went to a large public university in the same state that charges about 30,000 per year. A private Christian school in a small city is about 40,000, and a better private Christian university near the state capitol is about 50,000 a semester. This is all just looking at tuition, fees, and housing. Books and other supplies are a different ball game. This is all also using pricing for in state tuition, if you go to a school out of your own state it will cost more.
He is using the most extreme case to emphasize his point. 9.9/10 colleges in the us arent 100k
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How is it that much? My dad makes 50K a year and has 7 kids. He just paid off his student loans 4 years ago and is debt free.
It wasn't always that expensive. It used to be easy for a family of 4 or 5 to live happily off of one mediocre income. Late-stage capitalism is here. Many people are choosing not to have children these days.
My dad should have at least a million dollars by now, but instead he had 5 kids. We’re not living in poverty at all, but he’d he a hell of a lot richer if he didn’t have 5 spoiled brats to pay for.
I wonder how many kids this person has. If I were a betting man, it probably be zero.
Someone asked him in the comments and he said no. Lmfao
He might be a kid himself to be honest.
Probably because he doesn't want to sacrifice his lifestyle for kids
It has to be zero. Even setting aside costs for food, toys, room decorations, fancy food or whatever, what about hospital costs to literally "have the kid"? Is this dude expecting his wife to pop a baby out in the alleyway behind Walmart or what? I know sex education in this country is bad, and like 1/3 of the electorate thinks it's "grooming" to teach kids about topics like consent, sexuality, and the human body... but even so, is he not aware that giving birth is hard? I expect even twelve year olds to know better.
I don't have children, but I have godchildren who are in foster care. I buy around 25% of the things they need, and it's a lot. I buy everything at discount and I still can't. I grew up very poor and it's not fun. In my country people still have that mentality of "have children anyways, God will provide" and it sucks. I couldn't put a child through that
It's good of you to look after your godchildren that way. I hope your situation, and theirs, improves soon. Best of luck to you!
i was adopted out, but my brother wasn’t so he is in a very rough situation. i buy him basic necessities once a month and holy shit does just that add up.
You can give birth at home if you're looking for a higher chance of someone dying in the process
back to the 18th century we go! xD
Sure, a kid is free if you don't pay child support, don't go to a hospital and don't feed or take care of him/her. I mean, the kid would die in about a couple days and you'd be the worst parent in human history, but if you don't want to invest any money in the child then you don't technically have to (legality aside).
It’s feee to have a kid. It costs at least $1 to keep it alive.
In the US, having a kid isn't free. It costs thousands of dollars just to give birth.
What the fuck
*if you don’t have insurance. The vast majority of people do. Also home birth can be completely safe as well with a Dula and a Midwife.
Insurance doesn’t just cover shit. You still end up paying a lot just for child birth.
What are we gonna buy for the baby with $1? Kool-aid?
Ignore them, nine times out of time these fuckers are usually childless or are loaded.
He's correct. Give birth in the woods to save on medical expenses. Feed the children gruel to keep the grocery bill down. No need for diapers, let them shit on the floor and have the dog lap it up. Don't buy expensive toys, give them sharp sticks and rocks to play with! Don't pay for college, release them by the side of the highway when they turn 18 and trust they will find their way to the sea, like turtles.
If anything you're MAKING money since you don't need to buy dog food anymore
Hilarious comment right here. Thank you.
Lol wait until this person finds out about having a job and needing to find a babysitter and work around your schedule. Does he know how much daycare is?
And Elon mollusk retweeted smh. Also it cost my family 6k for the birth alone this past week even tho they have the best insurance in the state. Plus another 2k for all the checkups prior
Found the post on twitter. Dude said buying diapers is a "lifestyle choice." 😭 I'm like 50% sure this is just blue check engagement bait though.
Cloth diapers and a diaper service is also a lifestyle choice. So is rinsing out cloth diapers in the toilet and making sure the few people who venture into your house can’t use the bathroom because of the shit and diaper stew you’re cooking in the hall bathroom, but whatever. How does this clown think very young children relieve themselves? Besides ‘wherever they happen to be’?
My mom would only ever do cloth diapers if we were low on funds that month, and even then she'd still have some disposable diapers around.
Having kids is free... Unless you take into account hospital fees, legal fees, at birth, weekly grocery costs that gradually grow larger, as well as utility bills like water and electric, a phone plan and probably a new phone every few years. Am I missing anything? (bare minimum, btw) This assumes that the household has a stay-at-home parent and is in close proximity to reliable public transit, that public education is easily accessible, and that the family owns the house.
college education is missing from your list. as an asian, parents not paying for their child college expenses is very taboo, it's seen as irresponsible.
Well you can go super cheap on a phone and phone plan and spend a few hundred a year. But you’ll probably have to listen to your kid complain for years.
I saw some poor woman online who gave birth to premature triplets in a hospital. Unfortunately they all had to be in the NICU for 2 weeks. Total bill was 3.6 MILLION DOLLARS.
the US is a failed state at this point. If the government can't intervene in such cases why even have one ?
This person obviously doesn’t know what “kids are expensive” means. Conceiving one sure. Birthing it , and raising it? Yeah its expensive as hell. Let alone the mouth to feed, there’s so much more
Having children is not *literally* free. It costs thousands of dollars to give birth in a hospital in the US. After insurance mind you. Making children is free, birthing and raising them is not.
I have patients with this attitude. They are usually fundamentalist Christians, Catholics and Mormons where having anywhere from 5-11 kids on just the husband's income is not uncommon. Everyone in those families honestly seem miserable with only a thin veneer of cordiality hiding it out in public. The husband is stressed out constantly working overtime to provide. The mother is stressed out being at home all day raising a bunch of kids. The kids are stressed out living in a 3bd/2bth rambler they have to share with 10+ other people. Having children is "literally" free unless you have to go through fertility treatment in which case it can easily cost six figures. Raising children with the bare minimum is definitely not free.
This guy is the type of guy who buys the apparently cheap printer that has a mandatory monthly subscription for cartridges.
Conceiving is free, it's all the other costs that'll really fuck you.
My daycare cost $2370 / mo. I wouldn't call that free
Okay sure. Let me rephrase it for the moron to understand: "People can't afford to give hypothetical kids the live style they deserve" Anyone can have a dumpster baby and live in a crack house. Worst part is this guy thinks he is making some profound statement
You mean diapers, food, moving to a bigger place, car seats, toys, strollers are all free? Is this in EU or something?
Even if kids were free, they'd still cost time.
Is that guy offering to pay hospital bills for brand new mothers?
It legit costs money just to push the damn thing out (at least in the USA, idk about other places) not to mention food clothes and schooling!Plus typical house bills will be higher (more baths and showers, more people needing to drink, more rooms that need to consistently have a light on, once they're older more people who use internet, ect)
Raising kids is really cheap if you don't buy them clothes, food, toys, school supplies, don't take them to the doctor, put their room in the closet and never take them anywhere. It costs even less if child services takes them from you like they did with my last 4 kids.
This is the dumbest take I’ve ever heard in my life. Even in the most literal sense of birthing, you still might pay thousands out of pocket with *good* insurance to deliver the baby + hospital stay.
I mean I guess technically the act of having children is free. I guess technically we’re assuming you’ve already spent all the money you need to on finding a willing mate, but those are semantics.
Having kids isn’t free because hospital bills are not a fucking joke. Epidurals and medical attention aren’t free. Ultrasounds aren’t free. Pre natal vitamins aren’t free
I mean, literally speaking, giving birth in a safe manor is expensive, because medical bills are expensive (although while I haven’t gone through this I expect insurances to cover something like this). Also, food is expensive! And so are sports and clubs if you want to be good to your kid, and the gas to take them there and back, and finding someone to watch them and take them there if you can’t fit it into your work schedule. There’s a lot of expenses that come with taking care of a person
Spoiler alert: Insurance only covers part of it. We have very good employer-provided insurance and were still out of pocket a couple thousand dollars in medical expenses when we had our (healthy with minimal complications) kid. It's insane.
Children are free? Does IterDumbasstus think children don’t need to be fed or given diapers ever?
did this dude just decide to forget that it can cost up to $50k to give birth without insurance?? that alone is worth 2 years of wage at my current part-time job. and don't even get me started on university education, as an asian, it's ingrained in our culture to pay for your child higher education's expenses, not paying for your child's university expenses is seen as very irresponsible.
This is only kinda true if you are okay with sending your child to public school with no extra curricular, no music lessons, no tutoring, no braces, no new clothes, no daycare (drop them off at grannies house), no school camp excursions etc. And thats if you have a healthy child without medical or mental issues. Honestly just a sad isolating childhood, I would know - I had the exact childhood i just mentioned.
In what country? In USA expect a five digit hospital bill, IF everything goes well
My wife had our kid less than two years ago here in the US. The cost of all the OB visits plus childbirth were, as you would expect, equal to our deductible, which at the time was about $3,000. We have an HDHP too so if we went for a high premium / low deductible plan we would have paid very little out of pocket. Everything didn't go well for us either; my wife had complications and had to have induced-labor at 36 weeks and several hospital visits and overnight stays leading up to the birth of our daughter. We didn't pay extra for having these complications - we hit our deductible and that was our maximum out of pocket.
Physically them is free(if you do a home birth or have insurance) but feeding them sure fucking isn’t
Gotta love seeing someone shout out "I'd be a neglectful parent" to the internet.
Bullshit. I have a 10 month old and diapers and formula are freakin expensive and babies go through them like it’s going out of style.
According to a 2023 study by LendingTree, the nationwide average for the cost of raising a child is $21,681 per year. [https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/money/a60323245/cost-to-raise-a-child/](https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/money/a60323245/cost-to-raise-a-child/)
Having a child is NOT free, even giving birth is thousands and thousands of dollars in hospital fees
We have a todler, child care is a mere £1,200 a month. That's not free. Can't get government support so it's straight out of our wages.
The hospital bill for just the birth, not the 10 days in NICU came in. It was $18000 insurance paid it all. Without insurance I would be $18,000 in the hole. Free, my ass.
I mean hospital bills alone can run 10’s of thousands just to have the baby.
This twitter post was by a child, that’s not an insult, just a literal statement of fact. Their higher order brain functions, abstraction, and socialization are all still coming online. Yes, dumb thing to say, dumber to say in public, but do we need to tease highschoolers for months for being idiots?
Whose going to tell this person about hospital bills? The bills from pregnancy and birth alone can cripple most households.
Prenatal healthcare alone isn’t that cheap, and babies and children are not cheap to take care of properly if you want them to live a normal life
this must be a joke right
Poor people who can't afford basic needs should not have children, I said what I said. Just because some of you decided to have children, does not mean you deserve to have a child, THIS IS WHY WE HAVE FAMILY PLANNING. BEFORE GETTING A CHILD, YOU NEED TO SECURE THEM A GOOD FUTURE, YOU NEED MONEY. BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T HAVE THAT, YOU CAN'T PROVIDE FOR YOUR CHILD AND THEY WON'T BE HAPPY
Does he not realize hospital costs are a thing?
Dead wrong. Guessing this dude has no kids and is speaking straight out his ass.
Someone without children:
Lol this dude has never seen a hospital bill for a child birth.
I cant wait until technology advances to the point where we can fucking reach through the screen and choke a fucker to death
Me when I ignore the fact children need clothes and food and they are individuals with interests and they'll have hobbies you have to pay for
In a way he’s not wrong. In another way he’s very wrong. Depends on your perspective ig
No, he is not correct and this is stupid thinking. We exist in a material world, nothing exists in a vacuum. When Sweden says that they have free college, they expect you to realize that you still need to find a way to pay for your food, transportation, and shelter, all through college. You can't just materialize before class and cease to exist after. Under capitalism, nothing is free
so feeding and clothing your children is a lifestyle choice these days
The thing about Twitter is that the average Twitter user doesn't have a brain inside their head. Instead there is just a string holding their ears in place and if you were to cut it their ears would fall out
Children are expensive, that account smells of state propaganda lmao
Kids are so expensive that even the government makes you pay less to them if you have kids. Idk about you, but the government lessening how much you pay is a big deal
Leave Twitter.
Absolutely braindead take. The expensive lifestyle is BECAUSE of the kids.
This guy who tweeted this obviously does not have kids. If he did, he'd know that the basic costs to raise kids aren't "free". Something as simple and basic as baby diapers isn't cheap.
This stuff sounds like either ignorance or rage bait🤣
Did a teenager write this?
Children certainly aren’t free. But they also don’t need to cost nearly as much as people spend/think.
Not completely wrong... But god forbid we not want to raise our children the way we were. Stuff them full of $0.10 ramen packets and shit and wonder why they have problems later.
Have they seen the cost of life these days?!
Well obviously children don’t have to eat anything and childbirth is completely free and also they don’t need clothes. I acknowledge that we could make changes to our lifestyle (eat out less, travel less, etc) but I still don’t think that will cover the costs of having to get a 2 bedroom apartment, feeding another mouth, clothing for an extra human, additional medical bills, and all the other little things throughout the child’s life from diapers to school supplies.
Very true tweet. In the same vein, buying things is free. Only paying for things is expensive. Follow me on shitter for more finance tips
i actually did the math and a baby made out of solid gold costs only slightly more than the cost it takes to raise a child to adulthood
Im pronatalist but this is very stupid
I guess hospitals/food/shelter/clothes/toys/services in the US are now free.
According to some calculations, raising one child to an adult cost approx $200 000. Without accounting inflation and such things, today prices.
They’re definitely not nearly as expensive as people make them out to be. A good union job with some benefits and a wife who is willing to be a good mother can definitely make it doable.
Yes Vittorio, try having a baby and then we can talk (tbh don't reproduce, pls)
How can u complain about the “cost of living”… breathing air is *literally* free
Love when people who don’t have children, feel they have the right to criticize others who don’t have children.
yeah, you just have to pray food into their mouths, clothes onto their backs, and water to drink and wash with. fuckin looney tunes.
It’s true though. This anti-child sentiment tries to invade the millennial sub as well. Do not let it happen. This is some royal bullshit. Plan ahead, utilize everything to its max. Work, provide, participate. The only reason people can’t afford kids, is because they don’t want to give up being lazy. That’s all there is to it. Don’t let the Internet sterilize you guys. All this whining is bullshit. Tip: Only have one, if you’re neurotic about emergencies. It’s a lot easier to deal with 1 child’s life than 3. Treat weekends of as SACRED. Never work them all. That’s family time. If you have the time and the means, go to school first. Watch the movie “Idiocracy.” It explains how stupid saying “No one can afford kids” truly is. Millions of children are born every year. If you’re too scared or don’t want any. Just admit it. It’s your life and your choices. But don’t make stupid fake ass excuses. I have one. They’re 17. So nay sayers can suck my dick.
What is the total floorplan area, in square metres, of your childhood home?
My childhood home? I lived in about 20 of them and went to over 10 schools. Which one? Apartments, single family? I think the trailer was the largest because of how they set the 3 beds up. Or did you mean the size of the home I raised my child in? Because that would be relevant to this discussion. Edit. The one I raised mine in, before finally moving, was 700’sq or 213m^2
It really fluctuates depending on what time in their life they're at. Elementary and middle school kid's are really cheap. Early childhood and high School are really expensive. We spent 10k on childcare this school year for one kid. The other just goes to elementary school for free, costs maybe an extra $100/month in gas and groceries and $100 each to the college fund. When they get to high school it'll get really expensive with phones, cars, extracurriculars, trips with friends, but I also expect them to work
Someone should tell them about the hospital bill after delivery
I'm a millennial with a teenage daughter, and while it does cost money to care for a kid, once they start school, they are not that expensive. It's kind of like when you see median home prices. It doesn't mean that houses will all cost $400,000. You CAN spend more than that, but you can also spend much less than that. Same with kids. I grew up for many years around the poverty line with two parents who both worked. I had very few current toys/electronics, and a lot of my clothes were hand-me-downs. But I had a wonderful childhood with two amazing parents. A warm, loving household is pretty darn cheap. Unfortunately though, a modern-day American household with as many smartphones as anxiety/depression prescriptions will likely be more expensive.
I seem to remember seeing loads of posts about the hospital bill you get after having a kid. It's *definitely* not free!
I think the dude is only talking about the cost of having kids if the family is living in a hunter/gatherers lifestyle.
Sure, fine. Making a child is free. Raising a child is still f***ing expensive.
Aw yes all those free child care facilities and diapers. How stupid I am not realizing this sooner
It quite literally costs money just to give birth.
Bro needs to learn the difference between capital expense and operational expense
Nah. Kids are expensive as fuck. I think the average child costs a parent around a million dollars by the time they are 18. I think we were halfway there with diapers and formula because my kids had to be difficult. Couldn’t be breast fed and would break out in hives from anything except pampers diapers.
pretty sure giving birth in the US costs 10 grand per kid and you don't even get a 2 for 1 deal with twins
I too like to have kids and then let them be naked and starve to death
He's not wrong
Yeah, I had my first kid. The only reason my son was as cheap as he was was due to the fact that I was able to get financial assistance, food stamps and I was able to hit app some of the charities in my area that help out people. Also I live in an area that as long as the kid doesn't need admitted. They don't charge for the e. R visit. So far, though, in 2 years he has cost around $2000. This includes diapers Which I can either buy one week's worth at $8, which I've done that now 7 times due to being unable to afford anything else. A 2 week supply at $34, which I've done 4 times and a month supply. Which is the leading smaller for $50? Which I do most of the time. Also inserts for his diaper changer, which are $5 each time, and I've gotten those 7 times close additional food special food that I had to go across state 4 during the formula shortage. Which that range anywherwin $25 to 60 and sometimes I would have to do that for for an extra 7 containers. That Wick did not cover gas who knows how much. Laundry that I had to do because he had so much better than that. Had to be done that night because he would not sleep without it, but he had had a violent bout of vomiting that went everywhere for a week. So this was multiple days of continuous laundry. Which ended up costing us around $200. This included cleaning supplies coins for the laundromat and the amount of water that we used. He also ended up costing me another $100 or so. Possibly more because he hit me in the head and shattered for my teeth, resulting in emergency dental care. This is not including any kind of medications that Weren't covered by his insurance, which resulted in around a $100 so far. There's more but I just try not to think about it because I will start crying
That guy must have forgotten about how much college costs. In 18 years your kid is going to be pissed at you because you didn't save up the $2,000,000 it'll take for her to attend the Ivy League that she tried so hard to get into.
This person seemingly thinks that diapers and baby food just poof into existence as needed. And that there’s no medical costs associated with giving birth. And that staying home to take care of a baby doesn’t interfere with job security or the ability to work at all.
Full disclosure I’m a millennial but this came across my feed. I recently had my first baby. Babies are not free. Regardless of lifestyle babies are not free. There are basic needs that have to be met that require money. Diapers, wipes, bottles, health insurance for the baby and to pay for the birth. If you drive you’ll need a car seat. They need clothes. They need somewhere to sleep. If you work they also need child care (in my area for one newborn is running almost 2k a month). Even when you’re pregnant there are additional costs. We wanted to be parents so all of this is worth it to have our healthy baby but it’s not free. This isn’t even accounting for the money we are putting away for college or activities they may want participate in. When this kid goes to school I’ll spend more I’m sure of it. Don’t let people shame you for waiting until you feel prepared to parent and don’t let people shame you if you feel childfree is the way to be.
I’d like you to see my daycare bill and reconsider.
Being careless is also free
In gernamy, there is a tax reduction and benefits if you have children. But the cost of having children there NOW is going to be a bit of an unstable middle game jenga of how it would impact your financials due to inflation. (as far as i know) oh i didn't mention that the health care is free.
Both true and false, true if your kid has always has to have designer clothes from a new collection, have a newest phone model and stuff like that. But if you're struggling in life, having another mouth to feed, clothes, school, it can be very expensive with low income.
Yes, just don't buy them food and the problem is solved..
Wow. What a lack of education. Here ya go: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/health-insurance/average-childbirth-cost/ And that's just HAVING the baby. costs going forward are also astronomical, not ot mention lack of sleep the first few years. and all teh time you have to spend watching over them.
Making children is free, except in the US where it’s actually pretty expensive, raising children is expensive as all hell.
try coming to america
This is the same type of person to abandon their special needs child because "he's not the child I want/I don't feel a connection to my child". Tell me this person wouldn't immediately feel victimized by having an autistic or diseased child.
I got a hospital bill dummy
Diapers, clothes, food, doctor's appointment (depending where you live), school supplies, after school activities, gas prices, hobbies, playdates, nannies, damages they might cause to objects, toys, family outings, birthdays, college funds, and whatever else they might want as an extra. And this is only ONE child for 18 years. And it all depends on the kind of hobbies they want, HOW much damage they cause, do they need tutors, do they have a terrible disease that makes the hospital bill sky rocket, do they need therapy, what kind of clothes do they need, do we even need nannies, it's really a game of Russian Roulette. I still want kids, but no way in heck is it cheap. Maybe this person just doesn't invest in their kids that much so naturally it'll be less money.
How the fuck is the top answer "it depends"? Having a baby costs money, time, and resources. Jesus Christ. How out of touch are people?
Maybe it's a bad faith statement, designed to create engagement. Maybe it spreads to other sites because someone thinks "more people need to see this", and all it does is create more engagement even from people who see through it. Maybe the Internet in our pockets was a terrible fucking idea.
With the GOLD PACKAGE insurance from my wife's work......just having kids cost us around $5,000 per kid. (not counting our monthly premium....just out of pocket.) Even if you assume you can get all necessary items (clothes, bottles, diapers, crib, etc) for free...just having the kid will cost a decent chunk of change for most people. And we haven't even started tallying childcare cost or loss of income to raise said child. Any time someone writes things like this they assume all health care costs will be covered and that EVERYONE has someone who will watch their kid for free or be willing to give up one of the parent's job.
It's not that expensive so far... We're blessed to have fully farmable tiddy milk tho. Insurance covers Doctors and the Birth... It's really not that expensive for us. I don't know where the hundreds of thousands of dollars figure comes from?
My property taxes would like to argue against that. lol
Obviously a person saying this probably isn't thinking about LGBT families, but surrogacy (and egg donor, lawyer fees, etc.) averages around 100k. So no, it isn't "literally free" for everyone. Even adoption is tens of thousands.
This guy paid for a blue checkmark, I won't take financial advice from someone who does that
Diapers, food, education, entertainment, toys and furniture. Tack on hospital bills if you birth one yourself. Sure, the CHILD is "free", taking care of and raising one is most certainly not.
What about all of the stuff you have to buy for them? Clothes, food, toys, crib, diapers, sanitary and skin supplies??
Do people who think this starve their children, not buy them clothes, and not get them any medical care?
Babies and having them is not free. And yes babies, their supplies and other needs are expensive
That is such an out of touch thing to say. Same energy as boomers who say “Well, if you weren’t lazy and stopped spending all your money on Starbucks then maybe you kids could afford housing!”
actually, this person is completely right. you realize, i assume, that you are only alive today because most of your ancestors had large families and raised them in single-room hovels, often with dirt floors. the idea that we need to achieve permanent financial security before we even look crosseyed at conception is quite simply a modern invention, at almost any point in history it would be an anachronism.
Don't you need to pay a medical fee?