What Boomer Parents Spent To Raise a Child vs. What Parents Spend Today
Ask a boomer what groceries or babysitting cost when their children were small and the answer may sound almost fictional.
A $65,250 price tag for raising a child sounds almost quaint now, yet that was the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) figure — as reported by the Washington Post — that made headlines in 1980, right in the thick of peak boomer parenthood.
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In 1995, when baby boomers were roughly 31 to 49 years old, a middle-income family would spend about $137,000 in the urban Midwest (or $157,000 in the urban West) to raise a child, per the USDA. While, the latest widely-cited estimate for raising a child today is $320,661, according to Northwestern Mutual.
Let's explore the details between how much boomer parents spent to raise a child versus how much it costs parents today.
What Did Raising a Child Cost Around 1980?
One important point that complicates this whole issue is that these estimates are expressed in 1978 dollars.
The 1980 Washington Post article explained that the USDA based its work on spending reported by 20,000 to 30,000 families in the 1973 Consumer Expenditure Survey. UPI reported the estimate as $65,250 through age 18, excluding college, which also fails to account for inflation.
Using the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis CPI (Consumer Price Index) series, $65,250 in 1978 had roughly the buying power of $322,000 in 2025.
What Was Missing From the Boomer-Era Number?
The 1980 calculation left out day care and the value of a mother’s time. The survey didn't break down those costs because two-earner households weren't yet seen as a major problem when the data was collected.
That’s a huge omission by modern standards. According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), median annual child care prices for one child ranged from $5,357 to $17,171 in 2022 dollars (depending on the child’s age, care setting and county size). That eats up 8% to 19.3% of median family income for families buying care, according to the DOL.
But boomer households were already in the midst of change. The share of mothers with children under age 18 who were also working or looking for work rose from 47.4% in 1975 to 56.6% in 1980, per the DOL. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), it had reached 73.9% by 2025 and more working parents meant more families had to solve the care problem with money or help from relatives.
Is $320K What Every Parent Will Spend?
No, not even close. The federal benchmark describes a middle-income married couple with two children. Families with one child spent 27% more per child than those with two children, per the USDA. It makes sense, then, that those with three or more children spent 24% less per child (partly because of shared bedrooms and hand-me-downs).
Location also mattered, with rural families spending 27% less than those in the urban Northeast.
Was It Cheaper Being a Boomer Parent?
So, did boomer parents have it easier? When adjusted for inflation, the overall cost difference is less striking. But boomer parents had advantages that the child-rearing estimates did not capture.
In 1985, the median price of a new house was $84,300 and the median household income was $23,620; that’s about 3.6 years of income. By 2024, the ratio had climbed to about five years, according to federal housing and federal income data.
Union jobs were also more prevalent: per the BLS, 20.1% of workers belonged to unions in 1983, compared with 10% in 2025 (more job security, higher pay, better benefits).
Boomers, however, still faced less affordable luxuries. Smartphones and streaming services didn't exist and the television price index (yes, that’s a thing) dropped 94% between 1997 and 2015, per the BLS, showing how expensive home electronics used to be.
And it’s these differences that can make child-rearing across generations feel so far apart. Boomer parents had an easier time buying a home and more unionized jobs were available, even if the television set in the living room cost more money. Today’s families have amenities that earlier generations could only dream of, but a cheap TV can’t make up for a larger mortgage or thousands of dollars in child care.
When necessities take up a larger share of the household budget, it becomes harder to maintain a family, no matter what the lifetime estimate says.
This article was provided by MoneyLion.com for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial, legal or tax advice.
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