I have one child in daycare 4 days a week. The cost is $70 per day. It was actually one of the lower cost options in my area as it's run by a mom out of her home. For child care alone, I'm paying over $14k /year. Now a typical family may not have the means to pay that. But they need time away from their kids to work the same as I do. Maybe they're lucky enough to have family nearby that can help. But that's still a cost that has to be paid when you talk about the cost of having a child. In this case the family member is a covering the.cost via donated labor.