Scroll through your social media feeds, and you’ll likely come across conversations reflecting the ambivalence a lot of people are feeling about having kids in a tough economy.
Those feelings track with a recent Credit Karma survey of 629 adults ages 18 to 45. Sixty-eight percent said raising children felt financially out of reach right now, while 71% said they didn't expect to feel comfortable starting or expanding their families within the next five years because of economic concerns.
In its 2026 report, Lending Tree estimated that raising a child from infancy to 18 years old in the United States costs an average of $303,418, up almost 2% from its 2025 estimate. Combine that with an average debt of just over $27,000 among Gen Z Credit Karma members thanks to things like rising housing costs and student loans, and it's easy to see why more people are hesitating around having kids.
Families are responding to these costs in a few different ways, Intuit TurboTax reports. Some delay having kids until they feel more financially ready, or they space children further apart to avoid overlapping daycare costs. Others have kids anyway and hit pause on saving for a few years to make it work, or they simply decide to be child-free.
Delaying kids until the finances feel right
A number of Reddit groups, like the Fencesitter and the Waiting to Try ones, have regular discussions around how the cost of having kids has affected their timeline for having them.
"The only thing stopping us from trying is finances," a user posted in Waiting to Try, asking for advice on whether she and her partner should try for a baby anyway or wait until they've saved another $20,000 before trying. "We aren't in a terrible spot financially, but adding a baby to the mix would make things pretty tight."
Even higher-earning couples with no debt question whether they're financially ready. "I just think most people are one emergency away from housing insecurity or needing public benefits and I don't understand how people are confidently preparing to bring life into the world," one user wrote.
Childcare is usually the single biggest line item driving that anxiety. According to Care.com's 2026 Cost of Care Report, daycare now costs an average of $17,264 a year for infants, and parents are spending an average of 20% of their annual income on childcare. One in 5 families, the report says, spends more than $30,000 on childcare expenses each year.
"Is anyone else concerned about childcare? Am I freaking out for nothing?" A Reddit user asked recently in the Waiting to Try forum. Other Reddit users cite local daycare costs of roughly $1,300 a month as a factor in their family-planning decisions.
Spacing kids further apart
Affording one daycare bill might feel feasible, but adding a second bill on top feels like a real luxury for many families, considering it would mean they’d be paying an average of around $34,000 a year for childcare, using Care.com’s estimates.
So some families have taken a slightly different approach, where they have a child and then purposely delay having a second one so that their daycare costs don't overlap. One parent on Reddit said their family waited until their oldest was starting kindergarten before having another child specifically to avoid paying for two children in daycare simultaneously. "He was 5.5 and two weeks away from starting kindergarten when baby girl was born."
Spacing kids out doesn’t reduce the total amount a family spends on childcare. It just spreads the same total cost over a longer period, so the monthly financial burden is lighter even though the overall bill ends up being the same.
Pausing savings to make it work
Still, some families decide that having kids is worth any trade-off in lifestyle or savings.
"We have two under 2 and are spending $4,500/month on childcare," a Reddit user posted in the New Parents Reddit forum about how their finances had been affected by having children. "We are not saving anything at all. But once they get to school age, we will pick back up where he left off on savings."
That works out to $54,000 a year. For families like this one, the plan is to treat the daycare years as a temporary squeeze, putting saving on hold until they have more breathing room financially.
The decision boils down to this
For a growing number of people, the deciding factor isn’t necessarily about wanting kids. Whether they delay, space kids out, have them anyway and absorb the financial hit, or skip having kids entirely, it’s no longer a lifestyle choice. The decision comes down to what they can afford.
This story was produced by Intuit TurboTax and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
