One study found that raising a child on average cost £10,822 per year in the UK 2014. I don’t know how they calculated this, however. It looks like they didn’t deduct child benefits from the cost, which one presumably should.
~1/3 of that cost is education at £74k, which I think is mostly unreasonable to include as it includes university (where the cost is mostly borne born by loans taken out by the student that are effectively a graduate tax; and arguably, given all the free material available online now, isn’t strictly necessary for a lot of careers apart from it’s signalling value) and school lunch, when they will eat regardless (although fair if they deducted this from the food budget, which seems quite reasonable).
Child care and babysitting is ~1/4. This could be much reduced with a parent working from home (so no before or after school clubs/childminding needed), and/or living with extended family and friends on hand.
I’ve done all these things, and the time still has to come from somewhere. Imagine a normal workday, and then imagine it while also getting snacks, resolving disputes, helping someone find their shoes, etc. Even while living with extended family and friends, we have never lived with someone who wanted to volunteer for this. We are just now getting to the point where it’s viable to do for two days a week with a 5- and 6-year-old while both parents work full-time from home. Even that much is pretty suboptimal for both parents and kids.
In my answer I was assuming that the children go to school (usually between 9am-3:30pm in the UK) and I’d guess Greg was assuming the same, therefore only having to cover 1-2 hours working while children are present each day.
Otherwise I agree, this is much harder if children don’t go to school!
Sure, there are multiple ways of reducing these costs. But the same could be said about consumption among people who don’t have children. So I’d say that raising children is relatively expensive compared with other forms of consumption.
Of course—I’m not suggesting otherwise. My point is just to say that you can cut other forms of spending as well, just as you can cut spending on raising a child.
Yes, it’s ultimately a matter of prioritisation. My point is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive, so cost needn’t be the overriding factor in deciding whether to have children or not.
This could be much reduced with a parent working from home
I think the pandemic has shown this isn’t the case. As an example in my company everyone has been WFH since March 2020 and my colleagues who are parents have been working evenings and nights, and were the first to get furloughed (at their request) so they can take care of their small children.
It seems to me Greg was talking about school-age children where I think having a WFH parent will often be sufficient. I agree having a WFH parent for small children isn’t much help, as taking care of them is usually a full-time job on its own.
That said, most of the childcare cost in the UK does seem to come from the first few years (as it is a full-time job) and not from when children are school-age.
One study found that raising a child on average cost £10,822 per year in the UK 2014. I don’t know how they calculated this, however. It looks like they didn’t deduct child benefits from the cost, which one presumably should.
~1/3 of that cost is education at £74k, which I think is mostly unreasonable to include as it includes university (where the cost is mostly borne born by loans taken out by the student that are effectively a graduate tax; and arguably, given all the free material available online now, isn’t strictly necessary for a lot of careers apart from it’s signalling value) and school lunch, when they will eat regardless (although fair if they deducted this from the food budget, which seems quite reasonable).
Child care and babysitting is ~1/4. This could be much reduced with a parent working from home (so no before or after school clubs/childminding needed), and/or living with extended family and friends on hand.
I’ve done all these things, and the time still has to come from somewhere. Imagine a normal workday, and then imagine it while also getting snacks, resolving disputes, helping someone find their shoes, etc. Even while living with extended family and friends, we have never lived with someone who wanted to volunteer for this. We are just now getting to the point where it’s viable to do for two days a week with a 5- and 6-year-old while both parents work full-time from home. Even that much is pretty suboptimal for both parents and kids.
In my answer I was assuming that the children go to school (usually between 9am-3:30pm in the UK) and I’d guess Greg was assuming the same, therefore only having to cover 1-2 hours working while children are present each day.
Otherwise I agree, this is much harder if children don’t go to school!
Sure, there are multiple ways of reducing these costs. But the same could be said about consumption among people who don’t have children. So I’d say that raising children is relatively expensive compared with other forms of consumption.
There’s an important difference in kind here – raising children is a qualitatively different form of “consumption” than other kinds of consumption.
Of course—I’m not suggesting otherwise. My point is just to say that you can cut other forms of spending as well, just as you can cut spending on raising a child.
Yes, it’s ultimately a matter of prioritisation. My point is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive, so cost needn’t be the overriding factor in deciding whether to have children or not.
I bet cost often gets used as an excuse here.
Hmmm… something about making the two commensurable feels weird to me… (not sure what it is about it yet).
I think the pandemic has shown this isn’t the case. As an example in my company everyone has been WFH since March 2020 and my colleagues who are parents have been working evenings and nights, and were the first to get furloughed (at their request) so they can take care of their small children.
It seems to me Greg was talking about school-age children where I think having a WFH parent will often be sufficient. I agree having a WFH parent for small children isn’t much help, as taking care of them is usually a full-time job on its own.
That said, most of the childcare cost in the UK does seem to come from the first few years (as it is a full-time job) and not from when children are school-age.