Most parents will happily discuss screen time limits, sleep schedules, nutrition, schooling options. But bring up long-term finances and the room goes quiet. Maybe it feels too heavy. Maybe it’s just easier to deal with the grocery bill in front of you than think about what happens twenty years from now. Either way, there are a handful of money conversations that seem to get pushed down the list over and over. Some of these aren’t even conversations with the kids. They’re conversations between partners, or with a professional, or even just with yourself. And the cost of raising a family, according to the USDA’s research on expenditures by families, can run well past $230,000 per child through age 17. That number alone probably deserves a sit-down chat.
