Reply to What are the classic components of an UMC or UC American childhood?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I grew up UMC, and for me and my friends it was:
- Expensive sports (think horseback riding)
- Private school (K-12), followed by mostly private college with some top state schools thrown in
- Vacation houses
- Travel, lots of it, including internationally (no weeks in the Outer Banks every summer)
- Sleepaway camps all over the country and world
- Lots of parties, like pretty fabulous birthday parties and sleepovers with really cool activities
- Tons of toys (we didn't have gadgets like Apple watched back then but I'd think something like that is probably in now)
- Great clothes (I'm a girl so maybe I cared about this more than boys would)
- Cars at 16[/quote]

I don’t think this is UMC.  Maybe not Forbes top 100 in wealth, but probably top 5%[/quote]

The top 5% household income is about $160,000 per year in the US. I don’t think this lifestyle is attainable on that. [/quote]

The problem is there’s a lot of higher income people in this area, and a lot of lifestyle inflation as a result. If you were making a HHI of $160k in, like, St. Louis, you could live pretty close to this lifestyle IMO but private K-12 and private college might be out of reach if there’s no wealthy grandparents to bankroll. You’d probably have to make $300k HHI in the DC area for the same lifestyle. [/quote]

Hmm.. 350k currently in Chicago. Two kids and a SAHM. No debt, including our house. We could not afford much of this list. This lifestyle is not UMC, even in a less expensive city.

BTW your list needs some tweaking. Sleepaway camp is a Jewish thing in my opinion. I know many Jews who are middle class and pay (or grandparents pay) for expensive 8 week summer camps. Lots of toys is a low income thing. Fewer high quality items = UMC. The clothes can go either way. Many middle class families spend dearly on clothes but can’t handle the recurring cost of expensive lessons and vacation traditions. Plenty of UMC families dress their kids in Target clothes and spend that money elsewhere, on more important things that are in line with their values.[/quote]

DP and I totally agree about how sleepaway is often a cultural norm and not really indicative of economic class.[/quote]

I've been scratching my head about this too! I don't really hear about sleepaway camp being a "thing" here. It's common for kids to do one or two week sleepaway sports camps but not 8 week camps. I wouldn't want to send my kids away for the whole summer! I would miss them too much.[/quote]

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