Parenting Costs Skyrocket, Shrinking Families

0:00A new lending tree survey hits hard on parents and costs, showing 82% of parents with kids under 18 say raising them got way pricier over the past year. More than half, 54% feel it strongly. And get this, 55% drop at least $1,000 a month on child stuff with 64% dipping into debt to make it happen. Parents are feeling the squeeze so bad that 44% ended up with fewer kids than they planned, purely because they can't swing the. Spence, family sizes stay small too, with 41% having two children and 37% sticking to one, only 5% got 4, and 3% have 5 or more. Nearly all, 90% agree more cash would make parenting a breeze. This strain is real for over 600 U.S. parents surveyed online last month, reshaping family dreams left and right. Another report backs it up, finding child-rearing costs for the first 5 years jumped in 39 states

1:00from 2025 to 20. 26, 14 states saw at least a 10% hike and forced bike over 20%. Bottom line, these numbers signal families rethinking everything from kids to budgets, proving money's the biggest hurdle in building the next generation. This has been Tampa Bay News today, powered by AI. I'm Corey with The Story.