Do kids really not get less expensive after the daycare years?
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Anonymous
| I feel like I've read on here many times that while daycare seems exorbitant, things don't actually get any less expensive due to activities, aftercare, etc. With daycare costing $30k/year, unless you opt for private school I cannot figure out what would possibly cost this much. Even the most $$ summer camps are like $12k for the whole summer, which would leave $18k to break even with daycare costs. Idk how much sports cost, but I can't imagine that much. What was your experience? |
Anonymous
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When you read those threads it’s because people have their kids in a million extra activities. Lots of “enrichment” and travel sports.
If you’re just doing SACC during the, day camp in the summer, and 1-2 rec sports a year, you will absolutely save money. |
Anonymous
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I’d break it down like this for us
$22,000 Au pair $4000 summer camps $4000 sports and after school activities But it’s less for ages 5-9, then it revs up. Depends on the # kids and sports. |
Anonymous
| No, with activities, camps, etc. it can be more expensive. |
Anonymous
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Our 6 yo goes to a public school in MCPS- we don’t use aftercare,we rotate extracurricular activities between dance, gymnastics, swim, and soccer. That’s probably between $1-2k a year, max
Summer camp- we do 3-4 weeks, it comes out to a hair under 2k We are starting piano soon too, so total we spend $5k in camps and extracurricular activities. |
Anonymous
+1. We’ve been saving a bundle since the kids left the daycare years. |
Anonymous
What are these activities that cost >$30k? And to the pp above, I would venture to say that a $22k au pair is not a normal, necessary expense. It's feeling like the answer to this question is they don't get less $$ IF you are extremely comfortable financially and pay no mind to cost, but they do otherwise. |
Anonymous
| I have my kid in a million different activities. Without a doubt, it’s still way cheaper than daycare. Monthly cost of daycare was $2200 for babies, $1750 for toddler. Now aftercare is $100, additional snacks/lunch is probably $200, swim is $100, piano is $300, and soccer is less than $100 a month. In the summer, camp is around the same cost as daycare was. Maybe once she needs a science tutor or something the costs will go up. |
Anonymous
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Here’s the breakdown for us (1 kid):
Before and after care = $12,000 Summer camp = $6,000 Sports & Equipment = $5000 Tutoring = $8000 |
Anonymous
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When I had 2 kids in daycare we were paying over 45k/year.
Now, we stagger schedules so we do not need any before/aftercare. Now we spend maybe 15-20k/year for summer and break camps plus activities including 1 in a travel sport. So it’s definitely way cheaper. Most families don’t need an au pair or thousands of dollars in tutoring. I do have a kid with some SNs but I have good insurance that covers a lot. We’ll have to up our dental insurance to cover orthodontics soon and we’ve been increasing 529 contributions so the expenses don’t totally go away. But it feels like we have more control over them (e.g. we so fairly basic rec and specialty sport camps over the summer, nothing too fancy). I love not having 4K/month automatically earmarked just for daycare. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Our kids go to private school. We have a nanny. The kids have a ton of after-school activities that they love.
Could they go to public school and then just aftercare and zero activities? Sure. I don't necessarily want them to live that lifestyle though. |
Anonymous
There’s a whole world of lifestyles out there in between private school with a nanny and nonstop activities and after care + zero activities. My kids go to a great public school and don’t need a nanny because DH and I have the flexibility to take them to their activities after school ourselves. DH coaches their sports and I volunteer through scouts. They also do swim, play dates, outings to the trampoline park, etc. Spending more money to outsource doesn’t necessarily mean a better lifestyle for your kids. |
Anonymous
| Daycare and nanny cost are high. The thing is you can tailor the spending to your budget at a certain age. You have to consider what your kids are like however so it's hard to say. Summer camp is prob the biggest cost when they get older but it depends whether you are fine with them not doing so much at ages 9 or 10-16 or so when they can do more on their own driving. Travel sports depending on choice will cost you and if any learning disabilities or therapy costs that's another expense. What we find with 2 kids having done a nanny share is that annually it's prob similar costs with our 2 in MS with one in travel soccer, learning disabilities with tutor and both for 1/2 the summer in some sort of camp/sleepover camps and music lessons during the year. I think that depending of daycare, it could swing more while they are young easily. |
Anonymous
| The years just starting K are the cheapest. You feel rich after ending daycare/nanny to put them in school. The costs return when the kids get a bit older maybe 9-10 and MS esp. |