Penza, 12 May 2015. PenzaNews. The deputy minister, head of business development department of the regional Ministry of Industry Alexei Kostin, who had the second child in April 2015, wondered how much it costs to raise a child.

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“So far I have come to the conclusion that the second child does not cause much spending. Since all the basic expenses were incurred with the birth of the first child,” he wrote in Live Journal in the report titled “How much do the children cost?”

Alexei Kostin said that when the first child was born, he had to take a mortgage to buy a two-bedroom apartment, buy children's furniture, including two sports complex, a set of toys and developing literature, two carriages and sleds, clothing, as well as a nappy-changing board and a highchair for child-feeding.

“And now let’s take a look at what we needed for the second child. Only diapers because no formula is required: my wife feeds the daughter herself successfully. Furthermore, the certificate on the birth of a second child will reduce the mortgage. It turns out that a family incurs only indirect expenses with the birth of the second child, and they are due to the fact that the wife does not work and this is a kind of loss of income,” the deputy minister noted.

However, Alexei Kostin pointed out that the situation will radically change with the birth of the third child.

“The fourth room would be necessary, since the children of different genders need separate rooms. And it would be even better it is if the family could move to a private house. Furthermore, the mother has hard time taking care of the three youngsters. Of course, there is an opportunity to take them to a kindergarten, but the time demands that a child started building his or her career at the age of 4-5 years attending sports sections or hobby developing classes. And this means bringing the child to the classes and back home. Therefore, the family requires a nanny. Of course, this can be managed by grandmothers, but sometimes they still work, and sometimes they cannot or will not do it. It turns out that the whole population growth is a matter of the size and stability of the family's income,” he concluded.

According to the deputy minister, from an economic point of view, the process of child upbringing is a perfect project, which has a beginning and an end.

“When the project is successfully implemented, that is when parents made the right investments, the child will take a rightful place in society and will provide parents when they are old. I think that by building a similar motivation in society, we may create powerful incentives for population growth. With such an approach, it is obvious that it is much more profitable to invest in education and upbringing of children, rather than spending money on booze and cigarettes, an expensive car or useless trips abroad,” Alexei Kostin summed up.