this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
234 points (91.5% liked)
Bikini Bottom Twitter
3475 readers
358 users here now
Are ya ready kids?!
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
There's a really good question right there: While children are expensive as fuck, they do prevent loneliness and wild shopping sprees because they keep you from going online for long enough. So: Are children actually saving you money in the long run because they stop the root for buying stupid shit and keep you busy enough so that you ain't even thinking about getting said stupid shit?
Given that raising a child is, from a sourceless quick google, about $20-30k a year, they better not be. As for loneliness, a catβs about $650 a year, and makes a similar level of intelligent conversation for the first ten years or so.
Or maybe proper care for a kid really does cost $20k a year and half the population could not care for one without assistance or a partner to help cover those costs.
Plenty of children go without in this country.
I have one child in daycare 4 days a week. The cost is $70 per day. It was actually one of the lower cost options in my area as it's run by a mom out of her home. For child care alone, I'm paying over $14k /year. Now a typical family may not have the means to pay that. But they need time away from their kids to work the same as I do. Maybe they're lucky enough to have family nearby that can help. But that's still a cost that has to be paid when you talk about the cost of having a child. In this case the family member is a covering the.cost via donated labor.