💸The $319K Child: What Child Support Really Covers in 2025

Raising a child now costs $319,000.
Yet most parents are told to make it work with a court-issued child support number based on income and overnights.

🎧 In this episode, Florida Supreme Court Certified Mediator Matthew Brickman breaks down the real numbers behind raising a child in 2025—housing, food, transportation, healthcare, and more.

You’ll learn:

• What child support is really designed to cover
• Why the number almost never matches real-life parenting costs
• The hidden costs that blindside divorcing or separated parents

If you’re navigating divorce, co-parenting, or paternity, this episode is your budget wake-up call.

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 🎧 Have questions or stories to share? Email us at MBrickman@iChatMediation.com. 

If you have a matter, disagreement, or dispute you need professional help with then visit iMediate.com - Email mbrickman@ichatmediation or Call (877) 822-1479

Matthew Brickman is a Florida Supreme Court certified family and appellate mediator who has worked in the 15th and 19th Judicial Circuit Courts since 2009 and 2006 respectively. But what makes him qualified to speak on the subject of conflict resolution is his own personal experience with divorce.

Download Matthew's book on iTunes for FREE:
You're Not the Only One - The Agony of Divorce: The Joy of Peaceful Resolution

Matthew Brickman
President iMediate Inc.
Mediator 20836CFA
iMediateInc.com

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ABOUT MATTHEW BRICKMAN:
Matthew Brickman is a Supreme Court of Florida certified county civil family mediator who has worked in the 15th and 19th Judicial Circuit Courts since 2009 and 2006 respectively. He is also an appellate certified mediator who mediates a variety of small claims, civil, and family cases. Mr. Brickman recently graduated both the Harvard Business School Negotiation Mastery Program and the Negotiation Master Class at Harvard Law School.

Transcript

Sydney Mitchell: 0:00

Hi, my name is Sydney Mitchell.

Matthew Brickman: 0:02

Hi, I'm Matthew Brickman, Florida Supreme Court mediator. Welcome to the Mediate This podcast, where we discuss everything mediation and conflict resolution. Today, I want to talk to you about child support and the cost of raising a child in the United States at the time of this recording, which is the year 2025. So a lot of times people are complaining about child support, that how in the world are they supposed to raise children on child support? It's never enough. And my simple answer is child support is not there to actually cover what it costs to raise a child on a So how much does it cost to raise a child? And I think this is an important question to ask as you're a parent before you actually make the decision of how many children are we going to have. Now this is not to deter you from having children, but you do need to understand the cost and in the event that there is a divorce or a paternity action and the party split, you need to know what is it going to cost you to raise a child compared to the child support. So the child support I Again, everybody always says it's never enough. And it is a simple calculation based on income and the overnights that each parent is going to spend with the child. Currently, the rebuttable presumption in Florida is 50-50. And then we take into consideration both the parents' medical insurance costs and the children's medical insurance costs, and it spits out a number. There are a couple other factors, but they are unique. Those are the general ones that apply to everybody. So as of the time of this recording, For a married middle-income couple... raising one child from birth through high school. So the age 17 is estimated to cost around $319,000 and that excludes college expenses. And this is based on 2025 data and accounts for inflation as we currently have it. So here's a breakdown of some key expenses. The largest expense category is going to be typically housing. That's typically going to account for about $29 percent of the total cost as we know housing is very expensive rents are expensive mortgages interest rates but housing is is the largest expense the next expense is going to be food and that includes the groceries and eating out that's about 18 percent and i always tell people child support makes sense when you're doing an equal time sharing schedule because both parties are going to equally absorb the real world costs and the real world costs would be like food and gas and transportation and life And that is going to be the regular weekday type of expenses that on a 50-50 you're going to absorb equally. The next, and this is a big one. The next is child care. And under Florida law, if either or both parents require care so the parent can go to work, find a job, go to school, or enhance their income, both parents are contributing towards that child care. And that can be a significant expense. The next, which is calculated as part of child support, is the health care. That can include about 9% of the overall cost. So that's medical expenses, doctor visits, medication, dental care. But the health care is included The monthly premium is included in the child support guidelines. And then anything outside of the guidelines, uncovered, co-pays, braces, audiological, glasses, all of that, that's typically split then pro rata based on the party's incomes. The next cost can be transportation. And that's driving or public transportation or buses or any means of transportation to get around. That's about 15% of that budget. Next is education. That includes school supplies, extracurricular activities, and potentially private education. So when it comes to the child support, you've got the base child support. In addition to that, you've got the health care, which is included. But outside of child support, you will have the child care that we just talked about, and you'll also have possibly school supplies, school uniforms. You will also have the extracurricular activities. But as far as the data goes, they lump that all under education. And then other Other is about 7%. So what is other? Other would be like clothing, entertainment, personal care, like toiletries, deodorants, shampoos, makeup, all of that stuff. That accounts for the other. And so these estimate costs could be significantly higher than previous estimates when we just adjust for the inflation rate. But one of the last studies that was done was done in 2017. So it's 2025. It was done in 2017. And it estimated the same scenario just based on inflation and all of that, that it would cost $234,000 under the same scenario. So that did go up since 2017. And then in 2020, In 2015, it was estimated at about $311,000. So it was up, then it went down slightly, and now it has gone back up just due to inflation. So when, and this is per child, keep in mind this is per child. And, you know, I've been doing a lot of divorces and paternity actions recently where there are two plus children. children. And so, just keep in mind, the more children you have, these costs, this is per child. This is $319,000 per child. And so, you know, it is an important discussion that parents need to have before having kids of how many kids are we going to have? Who's going to work? Are we going to, you know, live here, live there? Are we going to have child care? You know, what are all the ins and outs? And Unfortunately, one in two marriages end in divorce. So, you know, it's important that when you're making these decisions, you also look forward going, okay, and in the event, because, you know, A lot of times, and I had a mediation just the other day where they had three children. Two of them were special needs, and the mother did not work. She was a stay-at-home mom. Dad worked, and now they're getting divorced. Well, now mom's going to have to work and take care of the kids, and dad is going to have to work and take care of the kids. And that means a lot of running around for occupational therapy and speech therapy for the two children with special needs. And that, you know, can increase this cost because, you know, when it was talking about health care, it's about 9% of the overall costs, including doctor visits, medications, dental. That could be uncovered expenses as well, and that could increase that overall price. So it's important to know that, you know, at the moment per child, it's about $319,000 that a couple will spend just to raise the child. That's basic, just raising the child. That doesn't include, like they said, it doesn't include costs. It doesn't include cars and cell phones and iPads and laptop computers and doesn't even include if you're going to have private school. So have the discussions with the other parent to make sure that you can properly provide for the child while you're together and in the event that you are not going to be an intact family because the child support, the child support will never equate. to $319,000 spread out over 17 years. It's just not.

Sydney Mitchell: 8:13

If you have a comment or question regarding anything that we discussed, email us at info at iChatMediation.com. That's info at iChatMediation.com. And stay tuned to hear your shout out and have your question answered here on the show.

Matthew Brickman: 8:30

For more information about my services or to schedule your mediation with me either in person or using my iChat Thank you.