As Costs Rise, Families With Young Children Are Feeling the Strain
Prices are up in America. For nearly half of families with young children, it’s becoming untenable.
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Families across America, particularly those with young children, are struggling this summer.
With costs up, many are facing financial hardship at a level even greater than what was seen at the onset of the pandemic. That economic strain is taking a toll on the emotional well-being of children and their caregivers.
That’s according to that have asked families how they are faring.
“It’s really clear that it’s a really difficult time to be a parent in America right now,” said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union. “I feel like we’re being squeezed in so many different ways.”
The administration’s approach to tariffs has forced up the price of many basic goods and services, she noted. The conflict in Iran has caused oil prices to spike. And federal legislation — namely H.R. 1, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill” — has led to the beginning of a pullback of social safety net programs such as SNAP and Medicaid.
As a result, Americans are dealing with soaring gas prices, increased grocery costs, higher utility bills, and untenable healthcare premiums that have prompted some to “roll the dice” and go uninsured, Rodrigues explained. On top of all of those ballooning expenses, parents must also weather the costs of childcare; extracurricular activities for the kids; and food, clothing and medical care for their dependents.
“All of these things compound and create this context of misery that we’re all feeling pretty acutely this summer,” said Rodrigues, whose organization recently released the results of a of parents of more than 1,500 K-12 public school students.
Among parents of children in kindergarten through fifth grade, NPU found that about two-thirds of respondents expressed that they think the economic conditions in the country are getting worse, with an overwhelming majority saying that the costs of housing, basic goods, healthcare, childcare and extracurricular activities were each “somewhat” or a “very big” problem right now. Three in four parents of kids in grades K-5 said inflation had changed their summer plans. Trips have been canceled or dialed back. Summer activities, such as camp, have had to be reconsidered.
Magda Zalewska, a mother of three children under age 6 in Romeoville, Illinois, is one of the parents feeling immense financial pressure this year. She wants to sign up her two older children — ages 4 and 5 — for soccer, but it’s not something she can afford. Trips to the grocery store and fueling up her car are crushing her right now, she said. She has no money in a savings account in case of emergency; she’s always hoping her air conditioner doesn’t go out, that her car keeps running.
“I’m already working from sun up to sun down,” said Zalewska, who works as an early intervention therapist. “I’m already stretched so thin, and it’s frustrating because you want to give your kids this life but you can’t keep up with expenses.”
Her compensation, even as it has gone up, never seems to keep pace with inflation, she added.
“Everything is going up in price,” she said. “I keep climbing the ladder, climbing the ladder, [but] I’m always at this paycheck-to-paycheck scenario, no matter how far I advance in my career.”
Zalewska has benefited from financial assistance over the years, from WIC, SNAP and Medicaid, but she said she lost Medicaid coverage recently and has been told she’s going to lose her SNAP benefits as well. Already, she said, she can’t remember the last time she ate fresh fruit. When SNAP is gone, she said, “It won’t be produce I’m not eating, it’s going to be meals I’m skipping.” (She focuses on making sure her three children have enough to eat before she feeds herself.)
“How am I supposed to pour into their cups when my cup is not filling?” she asked. “The support is being taken from our fingertips. It’s just all gone.”
Zalewska takes some comfort in the knowledge that she’s not alone. She notices a “uniform struggle” in the families she works with. “If it’s not financial, it’s overall stress and mental well-being. Most families are burnt out.”
Her point is reflected in data from Stanford’s RAPID Survey Project, which has been gathering information monthly from parents and childcare providers for over six years. Indeed, 44% of families with infants and toddlers reported challenges paying for basics such as food and housing in 2025, according to a by the nonprofit Zero to Three, which compiled RAPID data from families with children under age 3. That represents the highest rate in the prior five years of survey data, including in 2020 when 42% of families reported the same difficulties.
By the end of 2025, families’ financial hardship seemed to peak, said Samantha Melvin, director of policy research at Zero to Three and author of the report.
“Their struggles really grew throughout the course of 2025,” she said. “We can’t say discretely that one thing changed, but there is this kind of cascading, consistent onslaught of uncertainty and distress.”
Families specifically mentioned the heavy burdens of affording food, housing and utilities, she said. Economic pressure often affected emotional and mental well-being, with parents reporting increases in anxiety, depression, stress and loneliness over the course of the year.
Those stressors affect not just adults, but entire families, Melvin noted.
“If you’re afraid of paying for rent, putting food on the table, it may impact how you’re interacting with your baby or [how] your baby is perceiving that stress,” she said. “It can have long-term consequences and harm for babies to be living in this constant place of uncertainty and deprivation, unstable and inconsistent relationships.”
Often, people will respond to moments of hardship by noting that children are resilient. And they are, Melvin agreed.
“Families and the relationships are what creates that resilience,” she clarified. “Babies are resilient because of their parents.”
So when parents are taking on extra jobs to cover expenses, waiting in line at a Medicaid or SNAP office to access benefits they are eligible for, or visiting food banks to make sure their kids can eat dinner, that inherently pulls them away from quality time with their children. “How do relationships get formed?” Melvin asked. “It’s with that time.”
This resonates for Zalewska. She’s been taking on more and more work to help her family’s finances. She estimates that she works about 65 hours a week.
“I barely see my kids,” she said. “I’m missing all their milestones.”
Her current circumstances have left her in “fight or flight mode,” she said. Her nervous system is “haywire.”
“I’m exhausted,” she said. “I feel it in the bones of my body.”
Clara Busse, a mom in Philadelphia with an infant and a 3-year-old, doesn’t worry so much about meeting her basic needs, but she and her husband have to make some sacrifices to afford the annual cost of their childcare, which is around $35,000 for her two children, she said.
“Every friend I have with young children is facing the same challenges,” Busse said. “We need policies that make sense for young families. It’s really basic stuff. People are really frustrated.”
These issues are not likely to improve in the near term, with major cuts to SNAP and Medicaid looming in early 2027. Rodrigues and Melvin both emphasized the need for policies that support families, rather than ones that continue to take programs away and make life with young children less affordable.
“Families are having such a hard time,” Melvin said. “They shouldn’t have to be working so hard, but the way they keep showing up for their babies — we need our policymakers and elected officials to be showing up for them.”
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Emily Tate Sullivan is a contract early care and education correspondent at 91ɬ.
