What to Know
I knew that choosing to have a child was going to be expensive. But when I gave birth 13 years ago, I could not have even guessed how expensive things would get as my kid got bigger. We talk about the expenses that come alongside putting your child in day care, but as any parent knows, that’s not where they stop. Just earlier this week, I spent $50 at the grocery store, and walked out with two small bags worth of food. Most American parents are struggling under the weight of trying to raise a kid nowadays. But Fox News pundit Ainsley Earhardt seems to be hearing this information for the first time.
Being a parent right now isn’t good for your wallet.
Ainsley Earnhardt addressed rising child care costs during the April 14, 2026 episode of “Fox & Friends.”
“It’s expensive to raise a child. It’s gone up 30% actually, nearly 30% over the past three years,” she said. “It costs more than $300,000 to raise a child in the United States nowadays.”
According to a new study from LendingTree, it costs $303,418 on average to raise one kid from birth to 18.
Lawrence Jones, the show’s host, chimed in, adding “Apparently it’s all about where you live, and the most expensive places are Hawaii, Maryland, and Massachusetts. Of course, the South you get a break.”
She seemed genuinely surprised, which is shocking.
“Gosh, everything is so expensive,” Earhardt said.
“And what happens when you have a child is [you’re no longer] buying things for yourself. Everything goes to that child. You think about them constantly. I mean, it depends. It depends on if you’re doing public school, private school. It depends on if you’re saving for college. It depends on if you, you know, all their clothes, all their school supplies, the backpacks. I mean, it all just adds up. All their sports, the sports are expensive. All the uniforms you have to buy for the sports.”
Her co-host Brian Kilmeade chimed in, adding “Right, and that’s, by the way, the bare minimum, they say, with money.”
They then made a surprising pivot.
The hosts used their shock to pivot the conversation to President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” But instead of talking about how it guts programs that many parents rely on like Medicaid to give rich people a bigger tax break, they actually praised it.
“I think the coolest thing is the Trump Accounts, at $1,000 per newborn,” Kilmeade said.
According to HuffPost, the account is a provision hidden inside the multi-trillion dollar bill giving every infant born in the United States in a certain time frame a savings account that comes with a thousand dollars to start.
“When people have a birthday present, you have to go to a 2-year-old’s birthday party, which, what do you get them? Well, what you get them now is, ‘Here’s a bond’ or ‘Here’s a deposit for the Trump Account.’” Kilmeade continued.
People didn’t need Ainsley Earhardt to tell them how expensive having kids is nowadays.
“It’s not just an issue of rising costs, incomes are not rising in proportion. Look back at productivity in the last half century, salaries have not kept pace,” one person wrote on HuffPost’s coverage of the clip.
“So it costs 300,000 minimum today to raise a child (let alone how that price will rise over 18 years) but here is 1k that your child can use in 18 years…ok. I mean it costs me more than $1K just in groceries per month but, I guess I’ll take it? What? My daughter was born in 2024 and she doesn’t qualify?” a parent wrote.
“Don’t worry, the cult party is offering a whole $1,000 to cover all expenses you will need to raise a child LOL,” someone wrote on Yahoo News.
“I can just imagine how completely worthless anything with Trump‘s name on it is going to be by the time a two year-old in 2026 grows up,” someone else wrote.
Another commenter took on another part of the conversation, saying “Of course Childcare is Cheaper in Southern States, THE WAGES ARE ABYSMAL 🤨🤨🤨.”
READ MORE: I Quit My Prestigious Job Due to the Cost of Childcare, and I Don’t Regret It
