MNHQ here: what do you think of this survey?

[AliceDMumsnet]

Hello all,

We've had a few press requests about a new survey released today. We want to know what you think about the findings that suggest that parents on average spend nearly £10,000 (£184 per week) in the first year of parenthood. For example, the survey suggests that new parents are spending £62 per week on food and £20 on nappies.

What do you think? Let us know!

MNHQ

[EDITED BY MNHQ BECAUSE WE WERE HALF ASLEEP WHEN POSTING]

£25k nanny or for some mumsnetters loss of a £50k plus wage if they take a year off and don't get anything other than the 6 weeks at 90% pay.

In terms of what they spend on a cot and the other stuff - that is how long is a piece of string. With our first it was very little -the oldest jokes we even bought her cloth nappies second hand and all the clothes were from church jumble sales. With the youngest when we earned more about £1k on physical kit. Nothing much on food because they were all breastfeeding fully to a year or two nd just having crumbs from the parents' table as it were otherwise - bits of our food. Oldest 3 in cloth nappies so that would be washing costs.

If a parent only spends £10k then that suggests one or both parents have free childcare or very generous maternity leave indeed.

I'm confused . IMHO the survey dint involve actually speaking to anyone who has any clue what babies cost in their first year. I might have eaten a few more calories when breastfeeding but not and extra £63 a weeks worth. Nor did I get through £20 of nappies every 7 days.

To be fair our total food spend was probably around that figure, it's just it wasn't significantly affected by a new baby.

On the other hand if I counted the impact of mat leave, each DC cost a lot more than £10k in their first year. Also in addition to the clothes, toys and baby paraphernalia we changed a car within the first 12 months of each of our 3 DC being born.

Children are expensive, said every parent since Noah was a lad.