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Pros and Cons of Being a Parent | 11 Benefits of Parenting • (sammyapproves.com)

Parenthood comes with its pros and cons. Some of the pros of parenthood is experiencing the unconditional love, teaching your children new things like how to walk, how to talk, ride a bike, tie their shoes. You get to watch your child grow and you get to grow with them as well, and you get to build a strong bond with each other. Some of the cons are having to find childcare for when you must work, want date night, having countless sleepless nights and having to work harder for your family as you have more mouths to feed and support. You will have to budget money to because you have priorities. Parenting is a full-time commitment.

I picked this article because it weighs out the pros and cons of parenthood, the pros being the love and affection that everyone craves and the cons being the stress of finance, like working long hours, budgeting, cost of daycare etc..

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Being a parent definitely has its pros and cons. As you are raising your kids you'll quickly find out that all aspects of parenting are not sunshine and rainbows.
Benefits including unconditional love from your kids, reliving childhood experiences, and that rewarding feeling when you teach them things do outweigh the cons hands down. The disadvantages of not always having a babysitter, cleaning up poopy diapers, and spending countless nights awake are just part of the job of being able to raise these incredible little humans.
Read on to find all of our pros, cons, and the surprising benefits of being a parent.

What are disadvantages of being a parent?

Of course parenting comes with some disadvantages. However, when you read through the benefits below and if you are a parent you'll quickly realize that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

Parenting children, especially more than one comes with it's challenges.

1. You won't always have a babysitter for date-night.

2. You now have double, triple, or quadruple the chores to do depending on how many kids you have.

3. You'll have to work harder to provide for your kids. There are more mouths to feed now.

4. All of your money will have to be budgeted now to provide for the needs of your kids... and they come first. You'll have to sacrifice sometimes to get them things for school, pay for dance classes, or save for college.

5. Raising a child isn't easy. Every stage of your child's growth comes with it's own battles from poopy diapers and sleepless nights to moody teenagers and driving lessons.

6. Your kids will always want what you have. Especially the little ones. Say goodbye to the days of having a chocolate bar all to yourself.

7. Me-Time becomes less and less the more kids you have. Soon you'll be happy just to have an uninterrupted shower or trip to the grocery store.

8. Discipline isn't always easy and it's up to you to find positive discipline strategies to teach your kids to follow the rules, be kind, and respectful.

9. Parenting is a lifetime gig. Your kids may still lean on you as an adult. You'll be there to help them navigate college, girlfriends, marriage, and being a parent themselves someday.

What are the benefits of being a parent?

Although there are some disadvantages to parenting there are just as many if not more benefits. Raising kids is one of the most fulfilling jobs you'll ever have.

1. You get to see yourself in your kids. It's so neat to see how genetics pass down qualities and features from grandma, grandpa, and yourself in your own kids.

2. Passing down family traditionswith your kids is so fun. I love reliving my childhood with my kids while we do our special holiday and annual traditions together.

3. Creating a special family bond with your kids is so special. We love getting into the things our kids love so we can bond with them over their favorite things.

4. Watching your kids grow up is bittersweet and rewarding. Knowing that you played a role in the person they are becoming. That you supported them in their hobbies, interests, challenges, and school so they could grow into the adults they were meant to be.

5. Teaching them skills is rewarding. It's so amazing that you as a parent have the ability to teach your kids to talk, walk, read, and write.

6. When you have a child you immediately become more empathetic. To other parents, to other children, to your parents. You all the sudden have a different perspective of what it's like to be in the shoes of another person.

7. Having a child teaches you patience as well. You have to be patient when raising your kids. Patience while they learn to tie their shoes, finish their homework, and learn from mistakes.

8. The larger your family grows the larger your team grows. Your kids become part of your family unit and suddenly you have a whole crew to joke with, laugh with, watch movies with, play board games with.

9. Your kids allow you to be a kid again. Going to theme parks, on vacations, to the park, and to the zoo is such a different experience through a child's eyes. They make everything more fun, hilarious, and memorable.

10. Creating family goals with your kids and watching them help accomplish those goals is so worthwhile. Your kids are capable of so much.

11. There is help available as a parent. You'll find helpers in your spouse, kids, parents, relatives, friends, church, your child's school, local mom groups, and online support groups. You don't have to be alone in parenting and that is the beauty of it!

What are your reasons for becoming a parent?

If you are weighing the pros and cons of becoming a parent, know that it's a big decision.

Having a child means taking on a whole new load of responsibility that lasts a lifetime. You will have to work harder, make sacrifices, change routines, learn a lot along the way, and lean on your support system.

Before deciding to start a family make sure you are ready for that commitment. But, also remember that although parenting is hard there is a wealth of rewards and lots of help to make up for it.

Related Content:

Navigating through your child's life can be difficult without building strong family communication skills. Your kids will need to be able to feel comfortable with coming to you when they face life's challenge like a school bully, trouble with homework, stress, or anxiety. If they don't feel comfortable with coming to you they will keep it inside or go to someone else. Build your family communication at home!

One of the challenges of parenting is having a child who deals with stress and anxiety. You just want your child to be happy and may feel at a loss on how you can help them through. But, there are ways to make it a better situation for you and your child. Here's how parents can help kids with stress and anxiety!

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Pros and Cons of Being a Parent | 11 Benefits of Parenting

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Being a parent definitely has its pros and cons. As you are raising your kids you'll quickly find out that all aspects of parenting are not sunshine and rainbows. Benefits including unconditional love from your kids, reliving childhood experiences, and that rewarding feeling when you teach them things do outweigh the cons hands down.

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How Much Does It Cost To Be a Parent? | RealClearMarkets

Having children is such a blessing yet can be so stressful. When you were planning kids, did you think ahead about how much it was going to cost you? “According to the Department of Agriculture, raising one child from birth to college age cost an average of $241,080 in 2012”. That’s a lot of money, now I sit back and think how I am raising three kids on my own currently. Some family is a two-income family, some have stay at home moms or fathers, no matter what the situation is, it does not make the cost of raising a family any less. At the end of the day people don’t realize the amount of money it takes to raise a family. While being a parent is extremely awarding it does come along with stress and extra costs.

I picked this article because it gives you estimates on how much it is to raise one child, I'm sure that amount is more now as it was based from 2012, but it still give your an estimate of how expensive rising a family can be. I was shocked seeing the number it cost on average based on 2012 statistics.

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Children can be a great source of satisfaction but also stressful. As Jennifer Senior puts it in the title of her excellent book on the topic, being a parent is "all joy and no fun." Quite apart from the daily aggravations from arguing with a belligerent toddler or cleaning up after a messy teenager, I wonder how many people think ahead about what it's going to cost in both time and money.

According to the Department of Agriculture, raising one child from birth to college age cost an average of $241,080 in 2012. That doesn't even include the two really big ticket items. The first is the cost of college and the second is the costs a parent (usually the mother) pays for any foregone earnings.

Let's look at some reasonable estimates of each.

In 2013-14, the average annual tuition at an in-state four-year public college was about $9,000. For a private college, including room and board, the average cost is about $40,000. Using the lower figure but multiplying by four years of college, we need to add $36,000 to the above figure.

Now let's look at the cost of one parent working a little less in order to spend some time at home when the child is young. If that parent would normally earn $45,000 a year and chooses to stay home until the child reaches school age and to then work part-time, we are talking about adding roughly another $800,000 in foregone income. Obviously this figure is very sensitive to decisions about how parents balance work and family life. If a mother works two full-time shifts - one at home and one at work - these costs go away but it's also a very stressful experience. In fact, multiple studies have found that parents report less life satisfaction or happiness, and less marital stability, than nonparents - especially if they are well educated and especially if they drifted into parenthood unintentionally or were ambivalent about having a baby.

Women with children earn less than women without them. Some of it is due to mothers taking time off from work to stay home with their children but about two-thirds of it can't be explained by this fact or by the tendency of some mothers to work in more family-friendly jobs. Instead it appears to be related to some combination of employer discrimination and lower productivity on the job. The penalty is highest for well-educated women and it is higher for single moms than for those that are married, according to Columbia University's Jane Waldfogel and other researchers.

Perhaps for these reasons well-educated women are more likely to forego parenthood all together or to have smaller families than their less-educated counterparts. According to Sylvia Ann Hewlett, almost half of very high achieving middle-aged women (those earning more than $100,000 a year in 2001) were childless. This compares with 19 percent for high-earning men of the same age. The demands of a career may be one reason that childlessness is on the rise. It turns out that, rhetoric aside, it's hard to "have it all."

Adding it all up, the bottom line is that children are likely to be more expensive and time-consuming than most people realize when they contemplate starting a family. Still, many people report that being a parent is very rewarding. All of the stresses and extra costs may be offset by the sense of purpose or joy that the experience ultimately brings.

In my new book, Generation Unbound, I argue that having children should be a carefully-considered choice. Some couples will decide that they want to pay the extra costs and others will not. The important thing is that the decision be made with full knowledge of the costs in time and money, and not something that just happens because everyone else is doing it or because a couple drifted into parenthood unintentionally or with considerable ambivalence.

Related Articles

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How Much Does It Cost To Be a Parent? | RealClearMarkets

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Children can be a great source of satisfaction but also stressful. As Jennifer Senior puts it in the title of her excellent book on the topic, being a parent is "all joy and no fun."

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Price of Parenthood: The top 5 costs - YouTube

I picked this video because it gives you some examples of others cost of having children. Everything comes down to budgeting when it comes to raising a family. But there is also other hidden cost for families to help prepare their kids for the future like RSVP savings for college funds to avoid debt for schooling, life insurance to ensure that your children are going to be okay if anything was to happen to yourself or spouse.

I picked this video because it explains in details of other expenses that parents don’t think about when it comes to having a family. I also like how they pointed out in the end of the video to give yourself a brake and spend time with your family. Don’t overwhelm yourself and forget about the important things.

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What's the real cost of having a baby? - YouTube

Kids are a big financial cost. They are the most rewarding but most expensive. Its impossible to pinpoint the cost you’re going to spend on becoming parents but some cost you can prepare for are diapers and formula, ranging $100.00 each monthly. This video was based in the states, but they still made some very good points like buying second hand to help save some cost as there is other things you can be using that saved money for, like medical bills or an emergency fund. Childcare is also another big financial part of having kids, the average household claims to spend 20% of there monthly income on childcare alone.

I picked this video because it broke down some additional costs of raising a family, I found it interesting that in the states people are spending $53,000 on building a family even before the baby is born because of healthcare cost etc. thankfully I didn’t have to budget for that when I was having children.

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I wanted to share this picture because I feel that all parents deserve to know that they are doing a fantastic job, threw all the struggles, all the tears, all the financial stress, there are not giving up. They are picking themselves up and continuing to be the fantastic parents they are meant to be.

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Becoming a parent is beyond awarding, its unconditional love. Just a simple smile from your child will make all your other problems go away. As rewarding as it is, its not always sunshine and rainbows. Parenting comes having to support your children emotionally and financially. Financially comes with ensuing they have a roof over their heads, food in their bellies and cloths on there back, while emotionally comes with showing your unconditional love and affection.

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Cost of Being a Parent - YouTube

Considering how expensive and difficult it is to become parents, many people these days question why anyone would want to be parents. Parenthood comes with being executed as its is an assignment that is required for you to give it your all 24/7, it comes with sacrifices, stress and even tears. But even despite all of that, its still the most rewarding thing when you have their little arms wrapping around you telling you that they love you, or even being able to watch them grow.

I picked this video because it told a story about a lady with 7 children, you could tell the lady looked exhausted, but she still wouldn’t change it for the world, like it stated in the video nothing worth having comes cheap anyways.

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The Cost of Becoming a Parent – A Beautiful Space

The saying “kids burn holes in your pocket” is true when you put into consideration of all the costs that come along side with being a parent. You have the cost of food (diapers, wipes, and formula for the younger stage), childcare, rent or a mortgage, clothing, healthcare, etc. The average low-income couple with only one child can spend roughly $969.00 a week on living expenses, with the average making $4,364 monthly for an income, it honestly does not leave extra spending money or give the chance for parents to save up for bigger purchases.

I picked this article because it gives you an idea of how much you spend in "living expenses" weekly while raising a family. This article goes into depth about some of the everyday expensive that comes with having children and explains how its hard to families to save for bigger purchases.

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The cost of becoming a parent is not to be taken lightly. Not only do children burn holes in your pockets, but there are a plethora of factors to consider, ranging from clothing and food to recurring costs like child care.

Younger parents, who tend to earn less than their colleagues, face the brunt of these costs with greater severity.

According to a 2018 report by the UNSW Social Research Center, a one-child couple in a low-income setting can spend up to $969 a week on living expenses.

With an average employee in the US earning $4,364 monthly in 2021 , that leaves little breathing room for new parents to save up for bigger purchases like better housing and transportation.

This financial pressure can lead to some tough choices when it comes to raising children.

Let's take a deeper look at how these expenses are allocated in their budget.

1) Food and Groceries

All of the families involved in the UNSW Social Research Center poll cited food as the second-costliest expense in their budget.

This is a crucial finding as it points to the living standards that these families are able to maintain on a regular basis.

Here are some of the most common grocery items and their approximate prices:

With inflation, prices for these items are likely to increase in the years to come.

2) Childcare

Once children grow older and become more independent, parents are obligated to send them to daycare or after-school care.

While there's no question that providing your child quality education is important , the cost of doing so can be pricey, to say the least.

On average, you could be looking at around $100 per day in child care centers.

However, there are ways to drastically reduce the cost. These child care costs can be mitigated through a subsidy programme based on the family's annual income and activity level (such as volunteer work).

There are many helpful resources you can find online, such as this subsidy calculator, to help you determine how much you can save based on your financial status.

3) Rent and Housing

With a new addition to the family, it's only natural for you to expand your living quarters as well.

No matter where you reside, rent tops the list as the largest piece of the cost breakdown when raising a child.

Take this Australian example - according to the UNSW Social Research Center study, Australian households spend roughly $1600 per month on rent.

This doesn't take into account the utilities and maintenance fees that you may spend monthly or on occasion. These costs differ based on your lifestyle, but according to the survey participants, the estimated price of household expenses in Australia is around $100 per week.

4) Health

One of the great things about being a parent is that you might have access to high-quality health care for your children.

The downside is that this care doesn't come cheap. Health costs for a child can rack up, from dental bills to annual doctor visits.

Parents can expect to spend at least $500 per year on health care for their children.

This figure doesn't include larger costs that may come up, such as hospitalization for accidents or health conditions that your child may be born with.

5) Clothing and Recreation

Clothing and recreational items like toys and sports equipment are another big expense for parents.

On average, families might spend around $1,000 to $2,000 per year on clothing and recreational items for their children.

While this number may seem high, these numbers may vary depending on the child's age and activity level.

6) Personal Care

Personal care includes items like diapers and baby food, which is something that all parents will have to deal with eventually.

Parents can expect to spend around $4,000 in the first two years of their child's life. As they grow older, personal care expenses may slow down a bit.

Personal care will often expand over time to include more goods, such as shampoo, soap, and toothpaste as a child grows older.

Takeaway

Overall, becoming a parent can be a fulfilling yet costly endeavor.

However, with some careful planning and organization, most of these costs can be planned for and predictable.

If you're stuck or confused, don't worry! There are many resources online that can help you wrap your head around the wacky and wonderful world of parenthood.

Happy parenting!
The Cost of Becoming a Parent is a feature post

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The Cost of Becoming a Parent - A Beautiful Space

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The cost of becoming a parent is not to be taken lightly. Not only do children burn holes in your pockets, but there are a plethora of factors to consider, ranging from clothing and food to recurring costs like child care.

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Young B.C. families are having fewer children, opting out of parenthood as cost of living skyrockets | CBC News

As the prices of living is skyrocketing, it is becoming harder for couples to have multiple children. Food, Gas, Rent, its all skyrocketing while everyone’s pay is staying the same. Families are left with a decision between “buying a home” or “starting a family” because sadly they can not do both without extra financial stress. While the cost of living is going up, more and more families are deciding to have less children or not even having children at all because they are worried about the financial impact it would be having another mouth to feed.

I picked this article because it explains how today everything is skyrocketing in prices, yet everyone's income is staying at a standstill. Raising a family today with the outrages prices is difficult to the point people are now choosing not to even have children.

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T he CBC News series Priced Out explains why you're paying more at the cash register and how Canadians are coping with the high cost of everything.
Arden Matthews is 26, engaged to their longtime partner, and has a well-paying job in Vancouver.

Buying a home and settling down to start a family would be a natural next step, but Matthews says the thought of having another mouth to feed is out of reach as the cost of living in B.C. climbs.

"It's a conversation that my partner and I have frequently. We can't really justify even having concrete plans to have a family because the idea of home ownership, or even being able to rent a place with enough space in it to raise a kid in Metro Vancouver seems like a fantasy - it doesn't seem like a real possibility to us at all."

Matthews says it's a sentiment that's become more common among friends and co-workers of the same age - a nagging feeling that having children will be financially unsustainable, even 10 years down the road.

"No one talks about having kids. We all expect maybe one person in a friend group is going to ultimately end up having a kid or two and everyone will be closely involved in that, but that's the closest we can imagine."

Matthews isn't alone. Data from Statistics Canada showed 19 per cent of Canadians age 19 to 45 say they plan on having fewer children than they did prior to the pandemic.

Another 14 per cent say they've delayed having children, citing economic pressures and the rising cost of living.

'It's just not realistic'

Rising costs are hitting young families from just about every direction. In January, Canada's inflation rate hit a 30-year high of 4.8 per cent.

And Greater Vancouver has the highest monthly rents among metropolitan areas in Canada with at least a million people, at an average of $2,498 for a two-bedroom condo. That pocketbook pressure is forcing families to have tough conversations about how many children they can afford.

Parents aren't just priced out of B.C.'s notoriously expensive cities.

In Campbell River on Vancouver Island, 29-year-old Danielle Gaudet dreamed of raising a big family. But after giving birth to her now two-and-half-year-old son Theodore, she says she worries having more children would keep her from providing her son with the lifestyle she dreamed of giving him.

"Diapers have gone up five to 10 dollars since I've started buying [them], it's just incredible and I can't keep up," said Gaudet.

"He's such an energetic little guy, but we can't afford gymnastics, we can't afford sports lessons. I'd love to have more children, but it's just not realistic. It really bothers me that my son is going to grow up without siblings and not know that bond that so many people have with their siblings."

'Very realistic conversations'

In July 2021, B.C. became the first province to sign on to the Liberal pledge that would spend $27.2 billion over five years to subsidize daycares.

But Yuting Hsu, a midwife and mother of two in Surrey, says government promises have done little to ease the immense pressure on parents, even dual-income families like her own.

"We love children and we wanted to have more" she said, adding she felt fortunate she was able to use cloth diapers and breastfeed, which cut down costs.

"We still feel the stress financially. I can't imagine for families who need to buy disposable diapers and formula. I have friends who don't have kids and are considering whether to have kids or not, and we have very realistic conversations around this topic."

At 26, Matthews says they know they have time to contemplate starting a family - but trying to plan years down is difficult when the future feels so uncertain.

"Every year there's a new reason to think about next week and not 10 years from now ... there's just a very solid possibility that there will be a much, much smaller generation in this city because people can't afford kids."

Canada's fertility rate has been steadily declining since 2008, hitting a record low of 1.40 children per woman in 2020. Gaudet says she worries about the implications of a future with fewer children.
Do rising food prices have you experiencing sticker shock at the grocery store? Show us what you've been seeing at your local supermarket and send a photo or video with a brief description to ask@cbc.ca. Be sure to also include your name and location. It may be featured on CBC News Network.
"Children are our future and if we're not having babies then where are we going?"

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Young B.C. families are having fewer children, opting out of parenthood as cost of living skyrockets | CBC News

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Data from Statistics Canada show 19 per cent of Canadians aged 19 to 45 say they plan on having fewer children than they did prior to the pandemic. Another 14 per cent say they've delayed having children, citing economic pressures and the rising cost of living.

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Father Figure$ – The Surprising Cost of Parenthood! - YouTube

This video is letting the fathers have a voice and letting them state their point of view when it comes to the cost of parenthood.  Cost that shocks the fathers are things like diapers, formula, strollers, car seats, all the basics expenses of having a new baby. They also mentioned income replacement for when the mother is off on mat leave, and I think this is an excellent point that not a lot of families put into consideration when planning to start a family. When you’re on mat leave you only get a portion of your income.

I picked this video because I think its great to see the father’s point of view when it comes to the cost of parenthood as well, and the steps that they took to prepare themselves for starting a family. Babies may be small, but they are just as expensive as adults.

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Father Figure$ – The Surprising Cost of Parenthood!

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1. What did you learn about your topic that surprised you the most?
To be completely honest this topic didn’t surprise me as I experience this situation everyday being a mother of three children. Its insane the total numbers you come up with when you sit down and calculate how much you’re putting out each month to support a family. With the raising cost today, I’m not sure hoe people in the future will be able to have children, or even give their children a sibling.

2. Provide a real-life example of how this topic is relevant or interesting for you.

This topic is relevant to me because I am a mom of three, I can relate to all the expenses of raising a child as I have done it three times already and continue to do it everyday. I can also relate to the benefits of having children like the unconditional love you get from it, and I know firsthand hoe much of a blessing it is to have children, but I also know the stressful part of it as well.

3. If you could pass on your knowledge to a family member or friend, what do you think is the most important thing to pass on?

If I was to pass on any of this information to anyone, I would pass on the financial part of having children as I don’t think everyone really understand the cost of having children. I think people believe its expensive, but they just don’t know how expensive it is and all the additional costs that comes along with being a parent. Being financially stable before having a child is the best option in my opinion.