Ouch! I wish my income would have increased the same % as daycare costs. :laughing:
When we thought about it, we figured it this way...
Drop the kid off at 7:30am and pick her up at 5:30.
10 hours per day at 5 days per week is 50 hours.
$110 per week divided by 50 hours = $2.20 per hour.
$2.20 per hour seems cheap for childcare when you think about it.
So now its $200 per week, for 50 hours and that's $4.00 per hour. Still seems cheap. But if you're a young couple starting out, and you have two or three kids... yeowch! That's expensive.
So, you hope that you can maintain your job and benefits and pay raises while your kid(s) is(are) in daycare until they can enter pre-school.
We were lucky that our kids went to all-day pre-school, and kindergarten, with a latchkey program after school.
When we add it all up, for us, it was this:
$5500 per year daycare for 5 years = $27,500
$3500 per year P-8 for 10 years = $35,000
Summer care P-6 $100 per week for 11 weeks = $1100
High school averaged $6000 for 4 years = $24,000.
So righ there we have about $88,000 per kid, so about $178,000 to get them through high school.
Oh, you have to feed and clothe them, too. And sports gear.... yikes! :laughing:
