Yes that would be 4 more years of life than an American and an infant mortality rate that is 22% lower than the American one. Enjoy what you pay for.

The chart is interesting, but as others have mentioned, a lot of it is choice. Unless you are a single parent, you really don’t need to send your kids off to babysitting (i.e. daycare, pre-school, childcare, whatever feel-good you want to call it).

It IS possible for one parent to stay home whilst the kids are young (at least) to care for them. Yes, you might need to scale back the mommy & daddy toys and trips a little, but the kids will be a lot smarter from the attention and less sickly from the constant immersion in daycare germs.

In any event, stop whining about how the government should provide you with free healthcare, babysitting, schooling, &c. They are YOUR kids — YOU are responsible for their well-being and future. Don’t schlep if off on the backs of others. Know what you are getting into when you have kids (they are well worth it), but shoulder the responsibility yourself.

We spend less since having her for some reason. Having a very active child under two will get you outside to play all day instead of buying home entertainment or expensive equipment she’ll eventually break. It also encourages us to fix whatever we’ve got instead of buying new.

I’m old school too. I gave back to my parents after leaving the house. My first paycheck, I fixed their house…hopefully my kids will do the same?

Taxes! D:

Housing: Irrelevent you already pay for it.
Transportation: Irrelevent a couple of extra gallons of gas are all you have to pay for.

Education: Irrelevant you pay for this through tax dollars.

Childcare: Irrelevent this is a choice.

Health: Irrelevant some parents actually avoid immunizations and modern medicine (don’t ask me why)

Miscellanious: Toys are optional, you could always buy them from goodwill.

The only things that do matter here are: Clothing, which you can also buy from goodwill.

The total cost per year was only: $13,844
Take out the optional and it was: $1127 per year

We have it real good in America. Immagine living in a non developed country with children. We as Americans are spoiled and still find time to complain.

@ryan: I agree with you. The going rate for daycare in Southern California is $300 a week per child (infant and toddler, the price goes down as the kid gets older). I heard that the price is much higher in Northern California.

They should show charts like these in the sex ed classes in schools… oops. Do they even teach sex education anymore?

Too many times I have seen parents who treat kids as an annoyance and an imposition in their life. Kids are the greatest joy and the greatest challenge you can take on, and they are eminently worth it.

By the way if you lived in Canada as I do (or lots of other civilized places) the health care cost would be zero! To our American cousins: get a grip on your health care – there are better ways. I can’t imagine wondering if I should take my child to the hospital to have an ear infection treated because I might not be able to afford it.

Miss Cellania – As a father of three boys ages 16,14,and 11, I will be glad to add to the anecdotal evidence. Our food bill has gone way up since our two oldest hit their teens, much more than the chart would indicate. (And the third is not far behind!)

The child care expenses may SEEM way off, but it is skewed by the many many families who don’t pay for daycare, either because they don’t use it, or grandparents provide it at no cost.

Healthcare is definitely screwy. It appears that they surveyed people with health insurance, yet didn’t factor in the cost of the insurance itself.

Watch out, Alex. Anecdotal evidence from everyone I know says it costs twice as much to feed a boy (compared to a girl) til he leaves home!