<prompt> Human: UPDATE: There is an article on CNBC about this post! Check it out: CNBC ArticleSo I was inspired by a previous post from a dog owner who broke down the cost of hisher first year of dog ownership. I wondered to myself if I could show the same for the first 1.5 years of parenthood. So here you have it!Some comments: This is based on our specific situation, income level and parenting choices. If you plan to make different choices or are in a different situation, your numbers will be different. I included parental leave as a cost, but to be more accurate it would really be considered a loss. This was not something we had to pay, but something we had to account for in our budget. We live below our means, so we were more than prepared to go without some income for a short period of time. This would not have been possible without job securityFMLA which many people do not qualify for. We make an effort to limit our spending on unnecessary items and make specific requests to family for birthdayshowerChristmas gifts. For example, our son received a convertible car seat and a few books from my parents on his first birthday at our request. he enjoyed the books and we didnt have to buy a new car seat. We actually have to push back on a lot of the gift giving they want to do so we can avoid an over abundance of stuff in our home. Instead we focus their generosity on things we actually need - it works well for everyone involved. Item Cost Frequency Total Cost First 18 months Comment --- --- --- --- --- Parental Leave - Mom 5,500.00 One time 5,500.00 Used PTO a little over 2 weeks and short term disability 70 up to 6 weeks after 1 week - 5 weeks total to bring in some income. The rest of the time off 14 weeks total ended up being unpaid. It would have been 12 weeks, but I got a newbetter job at the end of my leave and took another few weeks off before starting that. Parental Leave - Dad 2,346.00 One time 2,346.00 He used some paid time off, but it was largely unpaid. Essentially resulted in 1 month lost income for 6 weeks of leave. Daycare 150.00 Weekly 9,900.00 We paidpay a stay-at-home mom to watch our child during the week. We have relatively flexible jobs which makes this arrangement possible. We do all the driving, provide all diapers and food. Health Costs - Mom 25.00 One time 25.00 We have Tricare and the cost of all prenatal, labor, deliver and postnatal care was covered with a single 25 copayment. Health Costs - Baby 0.00 0.00 Under Tricare our monthly costs do not go up when you add a child to the family SponsorFamily plan. We have also been lucky enough to only need preventative care for our son which is covered 100. Food pre-weaning 0.00 0.00 Exclusively breastfed until around 8 months - free! All pump costs were covered by insurance. Food post-weaning 25.00 Weekly 1,250.00 This is a high estimate on how much more we spend on food now we have 3 mouths to feed. New Baby Stuff 400.00 One time 400.00 We received most of the necessities through generous family and friends via the baby shower. Our registry was targeted at NEEDS and not cutesy or unnecessary items. After the shower we went out and purchased the remaining items. Diapers 600.00 One time 600.00 We decided to cloth diaper and bought all the diapers used off a local BST group. We have about 20 newborn diapers, 15 small pockets, 15 medium pockets and 25 All-in-Ones. The additional laundry cost is negligible. Clothing 10.00 Monthly 180.00 We hardly ever buy clothes for our son. He gets gifts from family members and we buy used 90 of the time. He does not have a lot of clothing and we like it that way. Other 30.00 Monthly 540.00 This is a high estimate on what we spend doing things with our son that we did not do before museum visits, outings etc.... It also includes any additional costs. We dont buy toys or really anything else for him - he has survived happily! TOTAL 20,741.00 As you can see the majority of our costs come from taking time off for the birth of our child and childcare. For most families in the US I think this will be the case plus additional healthcare costs - most families in the US are not as lucky as we are with healthcare. If a parent decides to stay home with their children instead of work and pay for childcare they would have to factor in the cost of losing an income and benefits instead of the cost of childcare. The choice to have children should not be completely financial, but it is good to be prepared and know what costs you will need to consider. If anyone out there looks at this and says I could never afford that! then I completely understand, but remember to alter these numbers to your own situation. Also remember this is over 18 months not 1 year. If you annualized the numbers above you get an annual cost of around 14,000, but that includes the one time costs. And finally, YES! These costs have been more than worth it for us. We are welcoming a second child any day now and look forward to doing it all again. FYI: Our costs for the second child have been even lower since we are able to reuse things from our first gender neutral FTW.  <response>: I opened this thread and the dog ownership thread at the same time and started skimming - I went a little cross-eyed at the parental leave portion as I thought I was in the dog thread. 