Maryland is now the second most expensive state in the country to raise a child, according to a LendingTree analysis published this month, and for some families the math is already shaping daily life. The estimate in the first five years alone comes to $36,419 a year, a 15% jump from last year, before the total climbs to $326,360 over 18 years.
For Azalea Worgen, who lives in a duplex in Baltimore with her husband and three children, the numbers are not abstract. Over 24 years in the home they thought would be a starter house, she said the family has been living day by day and spending more than $44,000 a year to raise three teenagers. They shop at Walmart and thrift stores for clothes, and she enrolled the children in a homeschooling community where she works part-time as a teacher, a setup that costs $4,500 annually for her children. “It leads to less is more. Honestly, I didn't think that we would be in this house. I thought this was our starter home,” Worgen said.
The pressure shows up differently for Kristen Holt, who lives in Bel Air with her husband and three children ages 5, 10 and 12. Holt said the family spends nearly $5,000 on electricity each year and about $10,000 on groceries, costs that leave little room to absorb other expenses. “It is really tough to see us as a leader in expenses,” she said. “We’ve absolutely felt the pinch and the squeeze of raising children in the state for sure. We’re figuring out innovative ways to make it work.”
That strain has also become political. Sam Kahl, a Bel Air father of four who is running for Harford County Council, said he is not really sure of the return his family gets for the taxes and fees they pay. Another parent, Jennifer Brown, a single mother of two teenagers in Harford County, said basic necessities such as food and clothing have become increasingly expensive over the last few years. The article says the cost of raising a child in Maryland has reshaped where families send their children to school, how they shop, save and plan for the future, and some are now weighing whether they can afford to stay.
Worgen said she lives in a district with a school that has a D average, and that parents who care and invest in their children take them out. That view, along with the tax complaints from other families, leaves a sharper question for state leaders than the new ranking itself: whether Maryland can stay competitive for families before the cost of raising children pushes more of them to look elsewhere.