Reply to Why do children get MORE expensive as they get older?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Of course it's not essential. None of the stuff mentioned in here is, including the oft repeated $2000 Nantucket daycare. There are cheaper day cares if you don't care about the nice extras. Most people do want the "nice to have" stuff like family trips to Europe and that is the point of most PPs.[/quote]

do you live in DC? I couldn't even get off the wait list for a daycare that cost less than $2000. At 18 monts we did find a dodgy "preschool" for $900/month but there was consistenly a ratio of like 15:1 toddlers, plus it was dirty and unsafe, plus they were mean to my toddler, who literally got depressed. At that point we considered it a privilege to get into a good center that charged "only" $1800 for 2 year olds. [/quote]

Seriously.  We lived inside the beltway in Virginia when our kids were small, and they went to home daycare (state licensed, insured, run by a lovely woman who my kids still ask to go back and visit 5 years later).  It still cost us $250/week/kid with the sibling discount.  Full-day preschool/daycare was "only" $12K/year/kid.  SACC after-care in Fairfax County for two kids is $750/month.[/quote]

What year was that?  Have you even looked at most in the beltway day cares?  They are at least $2000 to $2600 a month.  My kid's FT preschool with aftercare will be $23K but they get out 5/31 so we still need camps or something for the summer months. It's still a savings since the older one's elementary school aftercare will only cost $2780 for the school year.  Our younger one will be in FT preschool b/c we are no longer using a nanny which cost a lot more than $23K a year.

Bottom line is this (other than those who have found an affordable early child care option, and I'm not talking SAHP b/c you have to factor in the opportunity cost of losing that parent's salary (i.e., mine would be 200K+ not even looking at retirement), you need to put a child in some kind of safe, clean place with responsible caregivers.

No one needs to put kids in extra sports (travel teams, expensive equipment), fancy sleep away camps or luxurious trips.  All very nice and great if you can afford it, but there are ways to cut back costs so you don't end up spending $20K annually on that like one may have to for early child care.[/quote]

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