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.

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.