Whether or not Philip Larkin had a point about the impact that parents have on their kids, the one unanswerable fact is that parents also pay a high price for the privilege - and it's going up all the time.

Handily, if you want to put an actual figure on all those years of joy, love and temper-tantrums, LV= (the insurance and investment group formerly known as Liverpool Victoria) comes up with an annual calculation of the total cost of bringing up a child right the way from birth until they finish university. Parents of a sensitive disposition, look away now.

Because surprise, surprise, LV='s most recent "Cost Of A Child" survey (read it at lv.com/media_centre/press_releases/cost) revealed that each little darling is costing us more than ever - on average, £186,032 from the day they are born up to their 21st birthday. Which translates to £8,859 a year, £738 a month or, gulp, £24.30 a day.

Of course, if you privately educate your child you'll be needing to add rather more to that total -an extra £72,957 (£130,557 if she or he goes to a boarding school), taking the total cost of raising one child over the quarter-of-a-million mark.

Even without these schooling figures, the total estimated cost of a child has, since the survey began in 2003, increased by 33%. By 2012, it is predicted that we will be shelling out more than £12,500 a year for each child we conceive and raise. As forms of contraception go, it's not bad.

How the 'Cost Of A Child' survey works out its overall total and the average annual cost of different age groups compared

Total cost of bringing up a child in different regions of Britain

· Have you got any top tips for keeping the cost of kids under control? Tell us now at blogs.theguardian.com/money