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$245,340 divided by 18 years is $13,630 per year or $1136 per month.
Depending upon daycare, etc. that doesn't sound like that much to me. Of course, there are ways to spend less on some things. Remember this is an average.
Well, some parents do exactly that! But it doesn't work for all kids. We had no relatives living within 500 miles when ours were little, let alone any that could teach music. They can get the rudiments at school, but if they want to continue, even with school programs (band, orchestra, choir) in middle school and HS they need outside lessons.
The school presumes the child knows how to play the sport, especially in high school. They will never make the team if they don't have some experience at a younger age.
I've shopped at those places. I was never very impressed. I didn't spend a fortune on kids' clothes; I rarely bought anything not on sale, still don't for myself.
IIRC, your DD is 10. Just wait a few years. Paying kids your own money to do yard work and help around the house is not too economically wise. There's only so much they can make doing those other things; a lot of pet-sitting businesses don't want to hire anyone under 18. (My sister-in-law owns such a business.)
Eh, you just have to go on days they restock and in the swanky parts of town. Even my chichi MIL shops there and she can and does pay for real Birkin bags.
That's true, but if I'm paying someone to come clean my house and then just pay my child instead it evens out. I used to do all the laundry in my home growing up and I was paid for it. My sister mowed and edged the lawn.
I would pay a neighborhood kid the 25$ a pop i pay the guys to mow my yard. I used to use my old neighbor who was a teen as a pet sitter/ babysitter. Everybody on our street did. We were devastated when she moved. Maybe you don't live in a close knit community like I do though.
My kid already takes four dance classes a week, so I know about that. She will hopefully get into the ballet dance program in Jr High and our HSPVA. If not, we will pay. It's not that expensive though. It's about 2000$ a year right now. Shrugs. It may go up to 5000$, but that's no where near the cost that the article mentioned.
I would say a large portion of people who have children don't care about how much it costs to raise them. How many people have children with 0 money in the bank? A staggering amount. They want the cute cuddly baby but wing the money part.
I would never have a child without at least 5 figures in the bank and I'm not talking about 10k either. More like 50k+
Eh, you just have to go on days they restock and in the swanky parts of town. Even my chichi MIL shops there and she can and does pay for real Birkin bags.
That's true, but if I'm paying someone to come clean my house and then just pay my child instead it evens out. I used to do all the laundry in my home growing up and I was paid for it. My sister mowed and edged the lawn.
I would pay a neighborhood kid the 25$ a pop i pay the guys to mow my yard. I used to use my old neighbor who was a teen as a pet sitter/ babysitter. Everybody on our street did. We were devastated when she moved. Maybe you don't live in a close knit community like I do though.
My kid already takes four dance classes a week, so I know about that. She will hopefully get into the ballet dance program in Jr High and our HSPVA. If not, we will pay. It's not that expensive though. It's about 2000$ a year right now. Shrugs. It may go up to 5000$, but that's no where near the cost that the article mentioned.
Why do you care if I don't want to shop at those places?
Your parents may have paid you instead of paying someone else. I preferred for my kids to do the work b/c they needed to help keep the house running.
Yes, people pay kids lots to mow the lawn. Not so much to babysit. Obviously, they think their grass is more important than their kids.
Can the sanctimony! I have a neighbor friend who takes care of our cats when we're gone.
Well, perhaps the article (which I did not read, but I heard the story on NPR) exaggerated.
If you plan on paying for college, it might be more like $500,000. It is $100,000 right now for my child at a state university. I sadly live in PA, which is horrible for college! Anyway, you can make that number much less if you don't fall for all they hyped up crap. Just get cheap everything for little kids. They don't care about what kind of stroller or really whatever. Second hand is great. People just buy stuff to showoff to others because they are insecure.
I can answer that. When our first was ready to start kindergarten, we went to visit the school and decided to move. That school is currently rated 1 (1-10 scale) and we moved to a block from one rated 10. That meant a house that cost $82k more than we sold the old one for. When we had a 3rd on the way, we had to trade in the small car for a minivan, a cost of about $10,000 after trade. When the youngest was ready for a real bed, we had to buy a bigger house. Obviously we chose to have 3 rather than 2 or 1 and we could afford it, but I was not going to put them through what I had to experience as one of 9 in a 4 bedroom house, with 5 of us sitting in the back cargo area of a station wagon until some of use were old enough to drive second car. You also left off medical and dental, and orthodontics which even with dental insurance have a huge out-of-pocket cost. Car insurance when they are 16, entertainment such as movies
and associated snacks from about 10-12 on, bigger hotel suites and additional airfare for vacations, ad probably many other costs.
This is a pretty specific case, but it happens to some I'm sure. In my county, there are may 2 or 3 not so good schools, but home prices aren't any higher around the ~50 or so other schools that are all pretty average. Most people here (~15 miles outside metro of 1M in the south) will want to buy a 3 bed/2 bath house regardless of children because of the much higher resale value. Therefore, if one does have 2 or 3 kids, they have 2 extra bedrooms. ~80% also have a car that will work for 2 kids (well, maybe a little less if you count all the guys that only have a single cab truck).
As far as some of the other stuff - a teen should be able to work a little and pay for their insurance and some of the entertainment/clothing/food expenses (at least a weekend job). Most of the people I know (working class) never stepped foot on a plane. Hotel suites consisted of two queen beds in your typical hotel room (parents in one and siblings in the other) - this is maybe $20/night more than a single bed room. Heck, a cheap family member (despite having many millions) would cram 6 people in one of these small hotel rooms. His reasoning was that when a family goes on vacation, they pretty much only use the hotel room for sleeping so why spend double for extra sleeping room.
The more I read/hear/see information about parenting and parents themselves, the more I appreciate having dogs instead
Yup, because less than 20 years down the road you can just huck their remains in the garbage and get new ones from the pound for free. Meanwhile, parents are pretty much stuck with your own biological offspring until you're the one leaving feet first.
Exactly. Stuff like this freaks out people who don't have kids.
In Japan, where the fertility rate is a mere 1.2 (2.5 is to be recommended for any country) they're depopulating at the rate of 1 million a year, leaving behind empty apartment buildings, houses, shopping centers, less taxes to be collected. Even in China, which is relaxing their 1 child policy, when polls were taken, 70% of the Chinese mothers will not even consider having a 2nd child.
I've never had any children and it's stressful enough just to keep a roof over my head, and with children around and the accompanying responsibilities and expenses? Yikes! Just to get a good night's sleep, we're looking at 3 Tylenol Pm's, and one for each child!
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