I'm similar to LuluHB. We have both taken out life insurance since I became pregnant - enough to pay off the mortgage and enough left over to generate about half of one of our salaries if it was invested since even if one of us was working full time as a single parent a huge share of our salary would then have to go on childcare. I think you have to take into account your own circumstances - if you had family nearby to help with childcare etc then you would not need as much. Also, look into different types of policies and premiums - the policies through super let you pay from untaxed dollars but they're not always the best value and remember that over 10+ years the fees will also have an impact on the value of your super. We chose to buy independent policies so we had more choice and control and went with stepped premiums (much cheaper in the short term) as we expect we will be reducing the amount of the policies in future as our own savings and investments grow.