[spywaregorilla]

The most interesting piece here for me was that parents aren't having as many kids as they want: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/04/11/birth-rates...

I also wonder at what salary level does it make more sense for a breadwinner household over a dual income household. Childcare is expensive, and likely scales with your standard of living. I net of increased tax rates, child care costs, and time spent navigating childcare costs, it wouldn't surprise me if there's a lot of dual income households that might actually get more disposable income with one person staying home.

[seydor]

I'm not sure if this is particularly revealing. The biggest gaps in that graph are in italy, greece (poor, abysmally low birthrates), and sweden , denmark (rich, demographically better). The "ideal" number is probably influenced by peers, by family, by culture etc, it does not reflect true desires. That's why every country has a higher number of "ideal" children, but in reality people seem to have less kids, because they want fewer kids (a case of 'watch what people do, not what they say'). At least , i think people in sweden and denmark, do have the number of kids they actually want.

[sheepybloke]

This was actually something my wife and I are talking about as we think about having kids. In most of the jobs she's been working, we would be paying more than what she would be making in childcare if she wanted to continue working. At that point, it makes more sense for her to be a stay at home mom. I definitely feel lucky though that we can just live off my salary and that it's even an option for us.

[notch656a]

I wish you the best and I'm sure you have a great marriage, but something to note for others is that there is a hidden potential cost many don't think about when deciding if the mom will be stay at home: you may be responsible for a sizeable alimony in the event of divorce as a result of the court deciding the wife sacrificed her career on your behalf for the family.

It could be the difference between having enough to pay child support and your own expenses, and ending up with a felony charge and losing your property+passport+freedom+licenses because paying both alimony and child support (now higher because of higher income differential) can be insurmountable for some after going through a divorce. If you're a high income earner it's basically the kiss of death at any chance of ever changing your career (or taking a break), even if you psychologically burnt out on it.

[sliken]

That's highly situational dependent. But from the studies I've seen the need for a second car and price of child care are the biggest factors. It's easy to forget how much cars can cost these days. Parking at home, Parking at work, car payments, registration, insurance, maintenance, time/travel for oil changes, etc.

The range I've seen is on the order of $30k-$60k.