How much to raise a child per year

The Cost of Raising a Child

Posted by Mark Lino, Economist at the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion in Food and Nutrition

Feb 18, 2020

Families Projected to Spend an Average of $233,610 Raising a Child Born in 2015.

USDA recently issued Expenditures on Children by Families, 2015. This report is also known as “The Cost of Raising a Child.” USDA has been tracking the cost of raising a child since 1960 and this analysis examines expenses by age of child, household income, budgetary component, and region of the country.

Based on the most recent data from the Consumer Expenditures Survey, in 2015, a family will spend approximately $12,980 annually per child in a middle-income ($59,200-$107,400), two-child, married-couple family. Middle-income, married-couple parents of a child born in 2015 may expect to spend $233,610 ($284,570 if projected inflation costs are factored in*) for food, shelter, and other necessities to raise a child through age 17. This does not include the cost of a college education.

Where does the money go? For a middle-income family, housing accounts for the largest share at 29% of total child-rearing costs. Food is second at 18%, and child care/education (for those with the expense) is third at 16%. Expenses vary depending on the age of the child.

As families often need more room to accommodate children, housing is the largest expense.

We did the analysis by household income level, age of the child, and region of residence. Not surprising, the higher a family’s income the more was spent on a child, particularly for child care/education and miscellaneous expenses.

Expenses also increase as a child ages. Overall annual expenses averaged about $300 less for children from birth to 2 years old, and averaged $900 more for teenagers between 15-17 years of age. Teenagers have higher food costs as well as higher transportation costs as these are the years they start to drive so insurance is included or a maybe a second car is purchased for them.

Regional variation was also observed. Families in the urban Northeast spent the most on a child, followed by families in the urban West, urban South, and urban Midwest. Families in rural areas throughout the country spent the least on a child—child-rearing expenses were 27% lower in rural areas than the urban Northeast, primarily due to lower housing and child care/education expenses.

Child-rearing expenses are subject to economies of scale. That is, with each additional child, expenses on each declines. For married-couple families with one child, expenses averaged 27% more per child than expenses in a two-child family. For families with three or more children, per child expenses averaged 24% less on each child than on a child in a two-child family. This is sometimes referred to as the “cheaper by the dozen” effect. Each additional child costs less because children can share a bedroom; a family can buy food in larger, more economical quantities; clothing and toys can be handed down; and older children can often babysit younger ones.

Food costs have decreased over the years thanks to increased efficiency in American agriculture.

This report is one of many ways that USDA works to support American families through our programs and work. It outlines typical spending by families from across the country, and is used in a number of ways to help support and education American families. Courts and state governments use this data to inform their decisions about child support guidelines and foster care payments. Financial planners use the information to provide advice to their clients, and families can access our Cost of Raising a Child calculator, which we update with every report on our website, to look at spending patterns for families similar to theirs. This Calculator is one of many tools available on MyMoney. gov, a government research and data clearinghouse related to financial education.

This year we released the report at a time when families are thinking about their plans for the New Year. We’ve been focusing on nutrition-related New Year’s resolutions – or what we are referring to as Real Solutions - on our MyPlate website, ChooseMyPlate.gov. This report and the updated calculator can help families as they focus on financial health resolutions. This report will provide families with a greater awareness of the expenses they are likely to face while raising children.

In addition to the report and the calculator, we also have a dedicated section on ChooseMyPlate.gov that provides tips and tools to aid families and individuals in making healthy choices while staying on a budget. For strategies beyond food, our friends at MyMoney.gov offer a wealth of information to help Americans plan for their financial future.

For more information on the Annual Report on Expenditures on Children by Families, also known as the cost of raising a child, go to: www. fns.usda.gov/resource/expenditures-children-families-reports-all-years.

*Projected inflationary costs are estimated to average 2.2 percent per year. This estimate is calculated by averaging the rate of inflation over the past 20 years.

Editor’s Note (March 8, 2017): The comparison of rural vs. urban northeast child care and education value has been updated.

Visit the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s MyMoney.gov for more resources to ensure financial well-being this New Year’s season!

Category/Topic: Food and Nutrition

Tags: children choosemyplate. gov CNPP Cost of Raising a Child economics Expenditures on Children by Families Food and Nutrition mymoney.gov MyPlate Research

New study finds it costs $18, 271 a year to raise child due to inflation in the US

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Raising a baby from 1 to 3 years old is one of the most important tasks of parents | Mamovedia

At what age should one start raising a child?

To date, the need to educate a child from the first months of his life has been confirmed by numerous scientific data.

Essential factors in education are such factors as a gradual increase in periods of wakefulness, reflecting the working capacity of the child's brain, the early development of his analyzers (hearing, vision, etc.), as well as the development of speech.

And if you do not take care of the upbringing of the baby from the first months of his life, you can miss a lot. There is not a single day to be wasted in carrying out the process of education.

Psychologists believe that half of a person's mental development occurs at the age of the first 3-4 years of life.

If there is no upbringing during this period, then either a delay in the development of the brain or the formation of undesirable habits that create a picture of the child's negative behavior are inevitable.

It is impossible to give any ready-made recipes for raising a child, since much here depends on the individual (typological) characteristics of the children, the environment, the child's past experience, the habits that he developed earlier, and his state of health.

However, there are a number of general pedagogical rules that parents must follow. Let's consider some of them.

The child must be treated evenly and calmly.

The mood of parents is easily transmitted to children. The loud, angry cry of the child by the father or mother quickly excites him - tears appear, the baby begins to act up.

Sudden movements, “twitching” of the child when dressing, washing or putting to bed lead to the fact that he refuses to carry out instructions from adults, becomes irritable.

That is why parents in any situation must maintain an even and calm attitude towards the child, avoid "emotional breakdowns", irritable tone, etc.

Unity of upbringing .

You have already gained some experience in raising a child. Know how to feed him, how to put him to bed, how to calm him down, entertain him, etc.

The child adapts to the environment more easily if the parents use the usual ways of dealing with him.

Any change in familiar educational methods or the application of new rules that are still obscure to the child violates his habits and causes unbalanced behavior.

For example, a child is used to going to bed in a pram outside. Try to put him at the same time at home, in bed - you will experience certain difficulties.

Changes in the method of education can only be made in accordance with the age of the child, when it is necessary to make new demands: eat independently, undress independently, etc.

, the child's new skills.

The concept of "unity of education", in addition to the unity of the methodology of pedagogical methods, also includes the unity of approach to the child on the part of all adults involved in his upbringing.

Mom and dad, grandmother, etc. must have complete coordination in their approach to the child, the presentation of certain requirements.

Only such a unity of adult family members in their views on the upbringing of a child can ensure the formation of stable positive skills and balanced behavior.

If mom forbids “touching the clock”, and dad allows “take it, play it, son!”, then in this case the child will never develop a clear perception of such an important concept as “it is possible” – “it is impossible”.

With such a system of wrong upbringing, the child will quickly understand: it is possible to behave differently in the same situation - the only thing that matters is who is present, the father or the mother?

Neglect of the upbringing of restraining concepts forms such traits in the child's character as stubbornness, negativism, irritability.

Parents should be well aware of what this playful substitution of "no" for "may" might entail.

So, a single tactic in education, complete coordination in the actions of all family members is an important pedagogical requirement. Remember that your child at this age is more sensitive, quick-witted and smart than some parents sometimes think.

Your claim is law .

There is one more "magic" word that is very necessary in the process of upbringing - "must".

The correct, adequate reaction of the child to the word "must" is developed only when the parents already at this age teach the child to fulfill their requests or demands.

It is very important that your request is justified and matches the child's desire or need. For example, you say: “I need to sleep” when putting the baby to bed at the appointed time for him, or “let's go for a walk” when it really is time for a walk.

In addition to this condition, in order to develop the desired reaction of the child to the word “must”, the requirements of adults must be feasible for him.

Unbearable for children of early age (1-3 years) are such demands of parents as to sit quietly or to wait for something for a long time.

A child at this age cannot yet be immobile. The ability to “wait”, “sit”, etc., must be exercised gradually. It will form at an older age, after three years.

Next, each time you need to make sure that the child fulfills your instructions. And if every suggestion of yours to do something the child will meet with its obligatory implementation, he will form the habit of correctly behaving in accordance with one or another request from adults. But this is nothing but obedience .

How nice to hear such a characterization “what an obedient child!” With such a child, it is easy for parents and caregivers.

Development of independence.

If a child reaches for an object that has attracted his attention, interested him (for example, a toy), and finally takes out this object himself, without the help of adults, he rejoices, feels satisfaction from “his own independent actions.

Such actions of the child should be encouraged (“well done, that he got himself”), this will further strengthen his craving for independence.

It also happens that a child in a similar situation honks “I can't”, “no way” and asks adults to help “give-give-give”. And yet, do not rush to his rescue, but try to induce him to independent actions with words. “You are already big, get it yourself, try it.”

Try to get the child to do for himself what he could not do. At the initial stage, you can quietly help him bring the matter to a positive result in order to consolidate confidence in his abilities.

In this way you form in the child the need for independent action, the ability to overcome difficulties.

Can you be a role model?

Usually at the age of 2-3 years, children tend to imitate the actions of adults: kids in the game imitate the actions of their mother, father, grandmother, doctor, etc. They “feed” and “treat” dolls, “cook” dinner, “ read books.

It's nice to see if a child's imitative actions consist of following positive rules. And if not? Who is to blame? Of course adults. It was in their behavior that he saw, and then he reproduced the negative.

The ability of a child to imitate is very useful for correct upbringing, since on its basis the necessary skills and habits are mainly taught.

By imitating the actions of adults, the child learns many things - to eat neatly, fold his clothes, put away his shoes, collect toys. And in the future, children receive many hygiene skills, manners of cultural behavior, looking at similar actions of elders.

Parents should always remember that their behavior is constantly watched by attentive children's eyes, and behave accordingly. It is also necessary to draw the child's attention to all the positive actions that take place before his eyes. It is desirable to accompany educational influences with verbal explanations and persistently develop positive forms of the child's response actions.

Voice unit.

Parents should know that it is easier to get a child to perform some action if you first tell him about it, that is, create a preliminary setting, a positive attitude to perform this action.

For example, “We are going for a walk now, but first we need to get dressed” — and the child will willingly put on clothes. Or “Now we will have lunch, but first we need to wash our hands.”

Such phrases of adults warn off the child's whims. He understands that this “difficult” (dressing, washing hands, etc.) is done in order for the “pleasant” to come later (a walk, delicious food, etc.).

These words create, as it were, readiness for this or that action and arouse in the child a desire to cope with it.

The most common mistakes in parenting.

These include frequent, unmotivated bans, "failure of the installation", lack of stability in the daily routine. These provisions are physiologically justified, as they are due to the psychophysiological characteristics of the child's body.

Why are frequent bans harmful? Twitching, all kinds of "impossible" cause a braking state in the child. The age-related properties of its nervous system are such that they cannot provide long-term immobility.

This leads to overstrain and exhaustion of the baby's nervous system: he gets excited, screams, cries, stamps his feet, falls to the floor, etc.

Another subtlety.

When you forbid something to a child, you say “don't do it”, “don't touch it”, “don't pull it”, i.e. different words with the negative particle “don't”. However, due to the peculiarities of the child's perception of adult speech - after all, the baby has only just learned to understand it - he does not always catch this short particle “not” and often hears “do”, “touch”, “pull”, etc.

You will do wrong if you allow your child everything, or, conversely, forbid it.

The child must know the clear boundary between "possible" and "impossible" .

But there should be few prohibitions at this age. It is advisable to organize the place of wakefulness of the child in such a way that in his environment there is as much as possible permitted than prohibited.

What is a "installation failure"? Imagine the following situation: a girl is playing with a doll with concentration, wrapping her in a blanket. And mother has no time, she is in a hurry and demands from her daughter that she immediately begin to dress. It is this sharp violation of the child's concentrated activity that is the "disruption of the set."

The child is completely engrossed in the game (“fixed”). Suddenly, the game abruptly breaks down by the immediate demand of the mother.

In this case, the protest and resistance of the child, his crying is understandable - after all, all this is due to the inability to switch to another action.

If such wrong methods with a "disruption of the set" are used frequently, then a negative attitude towards the suggestions and demands of adults is fixed in the child.

It is necessary to skillfully switch the child's activity from one activity to another without violating the set - first with words, if the child understands speech well, then by showing what he will have to do. This way of switching attracts the attention of the baby and arouses his interest in a new activity.

Do not change your child's day routine abruptly and often.

Usually the conditions of his life are relatively constant (environment, home environment, etc.). The main components of the daily routine: sleep, wakefulness and feeding, almost always alternate in the same sequence. At the same time, certain stable habits are fixed in the child, which are of great importance for his life.

If the sequence of events of the day is suddenly disturbed (arrival of guests, change of feeding or sleeping time, departure to the country house, etc.), then, as a rule, the child's behavior changes: stubbornness, crying, whims, loss of appetite, sleep disorders appear.

To avoid these phenomena, we advise you not to allow frequent and significant changes in the child's living conditions.

If you need to change the situation (moving, entering a preschool, etc.), try not to change the child's habits that have developed dramatically.

One cannot bring many new things into his life at once. Of course, it can and should be diversified, but gradually, within the limits allowed by the age-related endurance of the child's nervous system.

In each individual case, you can get advice in the office of a healthy child of a children's clinic.

It is strictly forbidden to intimidate a child, deceive him or use physical punishment.

Sometimes you can hear how a mother, hurrying the baby, says “eat soon, otherwise I will give it to dad”. Such thoughtless words can form greed in the character of a child.

You can’t blame him too often: “how stupid you are”, “how stubborn you are”, “you don’t know how to do anything”, etc.

The child misbehaves.

Many parents get lost and don't know how to deal with the baby if he is naughty.

The most common technique that many people probably use is the method of distraction. The smaller the child, the easier it is to divert his attention from the reasons that caused crying, whims.

This helps to calm the baby, but does not teach the right behavior. Therefore, at an older age, it is better to replace the method of distraction with persuasion, clarification or direct teaching.

What to do if the child cries: pity, punish or ignore his crying?

In this case, the choice of the method of education will depend on the cause of the tears, the establishment of the child's guilt and other circumstances.

Why and how should a child be punished?

There can be no definite answer here. In resolving this issue in each case, parents should be helped, prompted by their love for their baby, the desire to bring up the best qualities of character in him, to protect him from mistakes in the future.

If adults give enough attention and caress to the child, then “a stern look with normal caress” may be quite sufficient.

It is important that the methods of punishment correspond to the nature of the child's bad deed. For example, a kid broke a toy or tore a book - in this case, it is necessary to say how badly he did and forbid him to use this toy or book.

It is better to immediately educate a child correctly, forming as many positive forms of behavior as possible in him, than to re-educate him later, to break the prevailing stereotypes.

Most children strive to do what their parents expect of them, because the strongest motivators in the world for them are the love and attention of their parents, and children work hard to get them.

Child development calendar: 1 year

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How to raise a child?

Child development calendar: 1 year

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0-1 year

Until the age of 12 months, the child is in close emotional connection with his mother and perceives himself as part of her. And in a year he becomes more autonomous, his personality begins to take shape. During this period, the child experiences the first internal conflict: on the one hand, he is used to the fact that his mother is always with him and fulfills all his desires, but at the same time he wants independence. When something doesn’t work out for him, he can start to act up, cry and get angry. Parents need to support the baby in his development, correctly correcting his behavior.

What can a child of 1 year old do?

One year old baby is able to:

pronounce easy words and imitate sounds by himself;
walk without support;
bite and chew solid food;
assemble a pyramid, build several figures from cubes;
make cakes, roll sausages from plastic material;
comment on what you are doing;
to use a cup and spoon.

A one-year-old child has clearly defined interests, likes and dislikes. He behaves differently with different people and shows independence in choice and action, and also actively expresses emotions, including negative ones.

Child development at 1 year old: 7 principles

I am a parent offers seven simple tips for young mothers and fathers to ensure that your baby develops quickly and easily overcomes the "threshold of one year".

1. Encourage familiarity with the world around you

At the age of one, the peak of the cognitive activity of the baby falls, so parents should encourage the desire of the crumbs to get acquainted with the outside world. Very often, children at this age are not at all interested in toys, but show interest in household items that adults use. So if your child is enthusiastically twirling the lid of a pot in his hands or trying to open the door of a washing machine, it is worth giving him the opportunity to explore a new object and try it “in action”! Of course, this does not apply to sockets and other dangerous items for the health of the baby.

2. Respect independent choice

Let the baby try, without your help, choose toys that he wants to take with him for a walk, put on a shoe or hat, decide what kind of porridge he will eat for breakfast. Such simple actions will let the child understand that you respect his independence and reckon with his opinion. If the baby does not succeed in some action, and he begins to act up and cry, you should not do everything instead of him: help him with advice. If the child cannot assemble a pyramid from rings of different diameters in any way, lay out the rings in front of him in the right order, but let the child try to assemble the pyramid itself.

3. Develop physically together

Closer to 12 months, the child actively crawls, can crawl under obstacles, climbs boldly on an inclined surface, easily climbs onto a chair or sofa, can stand without adult support and takes his first independent steps.

One year old, you can already start doing the first exercises: children try to imitate the movements of adults. Repeating the simplest exercises after mom and dad will bring the baby a lot of fun and exciting minutes, and young mothers can combine business with pleasure - “throw off” a couple of kilograms!

4.

Learn to use cutlery

One year old baby is able to use cutlery at the table. Some children at the age of one year already know how to prick small pieces of food on a fork.

5. Learn new words and counting

By the age of one, a child can already say a few words. Most often, these are imitating, lightweight words, consisting of simple repeating sounds: ba-ba, ma-ma, etc.

Children of this age distinguish between the names of close people and the names of certain objects. They willingly fulfill the requests of adults to show them a ball, a cube, a chair or a teddy bear. The child always looks in the direction of the person who was called by name, or the subject that is being spoken about. Therefore, if you call out loud new objects that fall into the field of view of the baby, your baby will quickly learn new words and learn to associate them with certain objects.

It is impossible to teach a one-year-old child to count, but a baby at this age can quite remember the meaning of the word “two”. Lay out pairs in front of the baby - socks, gloves, identical balls and say "two". Very soon the child will understand what is at stake, and imitating you, he will connect things in pairs.

6. Don't distract him from his studies

A baby understands the meaning of the words “possible” and “impossible” at the age of one, and when he is not allowed to do something, he will show his displeasure in every way.

One should not force a one-year-old child to do what he does not want to do. Do not offer the baby to take pencils and draw if he enthusiastically rolls a ball on the floor or builds a pyramid of cubes. Remember that children at this age prefer to be independent, so attempts to force them into unwanted actions will only cause negative emotions and whims.

7. Be patient

Child psychologists note that at the age of one, children begin to enthusiastically observe the people around them and strive to imitate their behavior. They already understand that they need to communicate with different people in different ways, and actively use this in their habits.