Middle income families spend a great deal more on their children and receive vastly less government assistance with a net cost of $375 per week and a lifelong cost of $449,513. The high income family spends $734 per week and receives, on average, just $1 per week in assistance.n our first report back in 2002 we found that it cost a typical family $448,000 to raise two children from birth until they left home (Percival and Harding, 2002). In our 2007 report we found that this cost had increased to $537,000 (Percival et al, 2007).