Rewind to 2011, as a child-free young journalist, I wrote an award-winning story on raising multilingual children.

But she knew instantly that she was going to raise Kierra just as she had been raising her older daughter, and that meant plenty of love — sometimes tough love — compassion, and joy.

It all means three out of four people with a child report having and raising their kid was “far more expensive than expected,” according to a LendingTree surveyof more than 2,000 adult ...