In her book, Who pays for the kids? Gender and the Structures of
Constraint (1994), Nancy Folbre points out that transfer payments are
always involved in raising children.  Either the father transfers money
to costs of raising children, or relatives transfer money to costs of
raising children, or the state transfers money to costs of raising
children.  From this angle, calling children "private" goods, does not
really work--it masks the dilemma society faces.  As society provides
fathers with less of a wage premium for having children, either women
work longer hours to pay the costs of raising children, or the state
must step in with a transfer to a wider range of people.  Our society
seems to opt for the "women work longer hours" as the base line.

Marie Christine Duggan