There are lots of things that worry me about becoming a parent. Will I be a good mom? How will I juggle work and family? How will my relationships change? My husband has his own set of worries , and among his many concerns is the cost of raising a kid. Diapers are expensive, he likes to remind me. Most of the time, I just brush him off: People who make a whole lot less than we do make it work. But if I really start to crunch the numbers, I get nervous, too.Today, the Wall Street Journal reported that it costs the average American family nearly $250,000 to raise a child from birth to 18. That’s a quarter million dollars — or as the Journal explains, the average family’s total income for five years. It makes for a clicky headline for sure, but when I took a closer look at the cost breakdown, I realized that’s probably a low estimate, especially if you live in New York City. If you break down $250,000 over 18 years, it’s an annual cost of around $13,000, but in NYC, day care can cost an average of $16,000 a year, according to a New York Post story published last fall. We’re not even talking about diapers and food and health care or all those cute onesies and leather moccasins and $600 strollers (you know, the essentials). And all the help the federal government offers is a $1,000 tax credit per child, if you make less than $110,000 combined income. Ouch.