If popular culture were any indication, you’d think big families are back. Television shows like Jon & Kate Plus 8, 19 Kids and Counting and 9 By Design follow women whose outlook on kids seems to be the more the merrier. Plus, celebrities like Heidi Klum (four kids) and Angelina Jolie (six kids) make many-children motherhood look glamorous. All of which raises the question: Are professional women shattering the two-children, nuclear-family norm? Susan W. Hinze, professor of sociology and women’s and gender studies at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, offers a definitive “maybe.” According to the National Center for Health Statistics, fertility rates increased steadily until 2006 to 2.1 children per American woman, hitting a high since the baby boom in 1961. However, there’s been a slight decrease in births in the past few years likely because of the recession, says Hinze. This year, the Central Intelligence Agency estimates an average rate of 2.05 children per woman. Two kids per family might remain the average, but the story doesn’t end there. Hinze says there is evidence that affluent families are beginning to have more children. According to the Council on Contemporary Families, there’s been a significant increase in three- and four-children families among the “super rich,” or the top-earning 2% of households, which translates to an annual household income of about $400,000 or more. The economic costs of having children today are huge, and high-earners probably have more simply because they are able to afford them. In fact, the cost of raising a child has exploded in the past few decades. A 2009 report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says that in 1960 the average middle-class family spent $25,000 per child, compared with a whopping $222,000 in 2009. When adjusted for inflation, that’s an increase of 22%. The report also estimates that the current per-child cost can be as high as $370,000 from birth to age 17 (which would not factor in college tuition costs), or about $23,000 each year

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