The rising price of raising children

Last week a survey came out with a figure for how much having a child is going to cost you: a six figure sum - €105,000 on average. Ouch.

 

I never thought having a child was going to be a money saving exercise, what with all these labour laws that frown upon young ones cleaning chimneys and picking fruit, but still, a hundred grand? That’s a painful thought.

 

Painful, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise. My credit union statement arrived yesterday, along with a flyer promoting loans for back to school and back to college. You know education isn’t free when your local credit union is advertising back to school loans.  According to the flyer it’ll set you back, on average, €700 to get your child kitted out for school; average cost of a year of college is, wait for it, a mere €9,956. Gulp.

 

One thing that made me wince this summer was the school transport fees, which bounce from a hundred or so for primary age to an eye watering €300-plus for secondary school students. Does Bus Eireann feel that parents of teenagers are wealthier than those of young children? Or are they calculating for larger bums needing bigger seats and therefore costing more to bus around?

 

Every year we all have the same conversation about schools and their passion for crested uniforms, the insane price of text books (what are they printing these books on? Gold?) and voluntary contribution fees that aren’t very voluntary, but every year nothing changes.

 

Every single school I can think of in my neighbourhood has crested jumpers – many insist on crested school coats as part of the uniform – as well as a separate school gym outfit (with crest, of course, because who can play basketball without a crest?). I even know of schools where affordable navy school trousers from Dunnes’ or Penney’s are banned and only Anne Fahey’s finest are allowed.

 

It’s madness, but what will we do? We’ll have a moan, occasionally on national radio, then we’ll get out our credit union loans and buy clothes with crests.  Lots of crests.

 

Daisy Wilson is a freelance writer who lives and works in West Cork. Mum to an almost-teenager and a toddler who is striding through the terrible twos with a glint in her eye, life is noisy, fun and covered in fingerprint marks.