How much does it cost you to raise and maintain a child in 2025? From several hundred lei per month if you breastfeed and receive clothes, up to thousands of lei in the big cities, where the kindergartens, the after-school and the bonuses exceed the average salary.
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At a simple calculation, private birth can reach 18,000 lei, diapers and milk powder exceed 1,000 lei per month, and the after-school climbs to 4,500 lei for a family with three children. But what is never accounted for correctly are invisible efforts: sleepless nights, pause careers, changed behaviors and huge emotional consumption.
First months: diapers, milk powder, doctor visits
“Mothers, in particular, carry on their shoulders the hardest part of this unseen work: a work for which they are not rewarded, not even sufficiently recognized”he explains, for the truth, Alexandra Badea, the founder of the community is Mom.
In 2025, Romanian parents speak openly, on forums and social networks, about a subject that previous generations treated with discretion: how much it costs, concretely, to raise a child. Beyond the romance of advertisements for diapers and powdered milk, the financial and emotional reality is complex.
A father tells Reddit as the birth in private, with all the additional investigations, cost 18,000 lei. Others confirm that, before birth, mother’s analyzes and supplements can add several thousand lei. The first months means diapers, powdered milk (if you cannot breastfeed), clothes that change weekly, medical visits and vaccines.
“Piticania cost us about 1,200 lei per month, including vitamins and consultations. I was lucky that my wife stayed for a year and seven months on growth leave, and I work from home, so I did not pay the nursery”, confesses another user.
Kindergarten, bona and after-school: costs that exceed the average salary
From a point, however, the costs get out of control. The after-school for three children amounts to 4,500 lei per month, as a father has to pay this amount in the absence of grandparents.
In Bucharest, the cost with a Full Time voucher starts from 4,000-5,000 lei, and a private kindergarten varies between 1,700 and 3,500 lei a month, I write other users. “Children are not an investment. What really costs you is paid in energy, nerves, stress. Your life changes completely, you have no control in what you do and never sleep enough”, He confesses a father of twins, who recognizes that his wife is facing depression after two years of intense maternity, without any external help.
At the same time, many parents point out that “it can be even cheaper”. Some say they are dealing with 600-700 lei per month for two children, because clothes and toys come from donations, and tables are the same as parents.
“I received clothes so as not to fit in the closet, and the crib reused it from my grandparents. A child does not need the most expensive diapers or trolleys of thousands of euros, but of attention and health,” notes a user.
The reality is, however, that the financial elections cannot be separated from the social and emotional context. Where there are medical problems: allergies, intolerances, chronic conditions, costs increase exponentially. A box of milk powder exclusively for those with allergies can cost 300 lei and only a few days. A private consultation at the pediatrician passes 500 lei, and the full package of obligatory ultrasounds and analyzes for the first year exceeds 3,000 lei, details the users.
Natality in free fall
All these punctual experiences overlap over a larger phenomenon, confirmed by a study published in March 2025 by the Children’s Club. Romania descended below the threshold of 150,000 newborns per year, while in 1990 301,000 were born, and in 1968 over 500,000. More and more women choose or are constrained not to have children: almost one third of the women in Bucharest, between the ages of 35 and 44 are not mothers, and the trend accelerates. Sociologists warn that the total fertility rate has decreased to 1.47 children per woman, well below the replacement threshold of 2.1.
We live in a paradoxical reality: nativeness decreases, infertility increases, and society and states look at as we approach an increasingly aging population, draws Alexandra Badea. “Without children, there is no future. And yet, the real support for parents is missing: we only stay with beautiful words and policies made in half,” she says.
In his opinion, if we want to change something, the solutions must be pragmatic and constructive: real financial support, accessible services for parents, flexible work programs, support communities and families oriented. “Otherwise, we will continue to be surprised by statistics, but we will not have generations to change them. Because yes, true costs are not only the money, but our future as a society”,
conclude the specialist.
