Do kids really not get less expensive after the daycare years?

[Anonymous]

There is a brief reprieve but then, yes, kids get wildly expensive again.

Beyond the things me mentioned, many need braces. Musical instruments or sports fees. Car insurance when they drive. School trips. Senior year expenses.

[Anonymous]

My kids are more expensive now than daycare. Family vacation, sports fees, eating out, video games/computers/phones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are more expensive now than daycare. Family vacation, sports fees, eating out, video games/computers/phones.

Me again. And sleepaway/summer camp. Ugh.

[Anonymous]

No way are expenses for my teenager more than when we had a toddler and needed full-time care.

We paid north of $2K per month for childcare before he started school. So ballpark $24K per year

In elementary, aftercare was around $350/month. Summer camp was about $500 per week including transportation. So about $5K per year.

Now he does not need full-time care in the summer, we are probably spending the same on activities. Nowhere close to the money we were spending when we had daycare expenses.

I'm expecting costs to go up again when he hits college, but we've had some time to save for that.

[Anonymous]

We have a nanny and kids go to private school, but no activities, and no significant change for us. Our kids have some screen time and play with the nanny.

[Anonymous]

The costs go down in early elementary but the college savings eat any savings. Costs continue to rise as they age.

While daycare costs may decrease, the food intake increases to an adult and keeps increasing to 2-3 times an adult when they hit middle school. School hours do not cover a full work day, so unless you and your partner can stagger your hours there are still daycare costs. Many people limited college savings during the early daycare years, so they have time to make up. Upper middle school to early HS are the braces years. HS brings car insurance increases, think doubling. Many people also want to travel more as their kids get older and it is more expensive. Activities increase in cost. Musical instruments, music lessons …… it isn’t just sports.

[Anonymous]

Varies so widely. We pay for two activities and half day summer camp for total of $7k a year.
The activities are right after school in school and no aftercare needed.
It's the robux that is getting expensive. Luckily DC hits abuela up for that.

[Anonymous]

You should just take that daycare money and put it away for college since it comes quicker than you think!

[Anonymous]

We do aftercare, 5k, summer camps another 4-5k, and maybe another 1k of activities. So definitely less than daycare. Public school as well.

[Anonymous]

I didn’t find the post daycare years to be cheaper either for all of the reasons everyone is saying. The thing about daycare is that it’s predictable and easy to plan for. The thing with older kids is the unpredictability of so many expenses. I know about car insurance and sports expenses. But the $11k I spent for tutoring and dental care this month on one kid hit hard because it wasn’t anticipated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No way are expenses for my teenager more than when we had a toddler and needed full-time care.

We paid north of $2K per month for childcare before he started school. So ballpark $24K per year

In elementary, aftercare was around $350/month. Summer camp was about $500 per week including transportation. So about $5K per year.

Now he does not need full-time care in the summer, we are probably spending the same on activities. Nowhere close to the money we were spending when we had daycare expenses.

I'm expecting costs to go up again when he hits college, but we've had some time to save for that.

Same for us. With an older elementary school child, I don’t even use after care anymore. He takes a music lesson and does a sport, and does some day camps for the summer. Total is probably $6000-$8000 a year and we don’t “need” those things. Full time daycare was $24,000 per year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We do aftercare, 5k, summer camps another 4-5k, and maybe another 1k of activities. So definitely less than daycare. Public school as well.

What summer camps cost 4-5k?

[Anonymous]

8 year old and we did send him to private school for a few years because of covid, but the tuition was less than daycare sk we absorbed it easily. Now he is in public but his extracurriculars are expensive. $3K for travel soccer. $4K for a music hobby. Last year he did I think 7 weeks of summer camp and it was probably $3K total.

But the day to day stuff is more expensive too. Clothes, food, toys/video games, shoes, its all way more expensive than the toddler years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We do aftercare, 5k, summer camps another 4-5k, and maybe another 1k of activities. So definitely less than daycare. Public school as well.

What summer camps cost 4-5k?

Specialty camps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We do aftercare, 5k, summer camps another 4-5k, and maybe another 1k of activities. So definitely less than daycare. Public school as well.

What summer camps cost 4-5k?

I think they mean doing 8 weeks of camp at $500/week.