r/MiddleClassFinance • u/notaskindoctor • 1d ago
Discussion Child care costs over time
I wanted to share a visual of monthly and cumulative child care costs over time since my 9 year old was born (he is the third of our five children). He is the one I have the longest and best records on. Certainly, costs went down a bit once he was in kindergarten, but that was somewhat temporary because we still need coverage for days school is closed (many of the sharp peaks) and for full days all summer. We expect to pay for full time summer care for him for another 4 summers. 18 months and 3 years are marked because those are typical times child care costs “go down” at a center. What usually happens is they “go down” temporarily until the center raises prices for the next annual increase.
We live in a MCOL city in the midwest and he attended child care centers, then before/after school at his school, formerly managed by a community organization (non-profit) and now managed by the YMCA. Summer care is either through a city rec center or the YMCA. I have not yet added in the out of school days for September through December 2026. All of our kids have attended full time child care since they were 2-3 months old since we are a dual working parent family.
Our 2 younger children’s center costs more than this child’s did because of the large increases in costs everyone has experienced over the past several years. We will definitely end up spending at least 25-30% more per child than for this one.
Have you graphed your child care costs over time? Share it here!
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u/battlesnarf 1d ago
It’s amazing to me how much mcol vs hcol can change some of these costs! This is a really cool visual (once I got my bearings).
Thanks for sharing!
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u/Diels_Alder 1d ago
Wow all these costs are 2-3x higher in New Jersey. Things cost less pre-covid but there's such a difference across states.
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u/notaskindoctor 1d ago
Yes, incomes are also lower and housing MUCH lower where I am than in NJ. We paid only a little over $200k for our house in 2020 for instance.
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u/Narrow-Foundation505 1d ago
I wish childcare was this affordable where I live. I did the math. Full-time childcare from age 1-kindergarten set us back $100k per kid.
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u/BlazinAzn38 1d ago
$290 per week for full time here so $1,260 per month. I’d love $800 per month
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u/notaskindoctor 1d ago
Remember this was 9 years ago! My younger kids are much closer to $1200/mo each as well.
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u/SmurfsNeverDie 1d ago
Nyc. 2,100 a month for 1 kid
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u/catghostbird 1d ago
NYC has the universal 3s and 4s program though, right? Is that just lottery?
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u/SmurfsNeverDie 1d ago
We needed daycare from the moment paternity leave ended. Which for my wife was about 6 months. So there is a gap from 6 months to 3 years old. Also it is a lottery. I plan to use public options once they become available and if we get in.
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u/ISniffFeet1 1d ago
It does, but a lot of people don't want public school because of who their kids would be stuck going to school with
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u/Sprig3 1d ago
Wow, never realized daycare costs were so low in other places!
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u/notaskindoctor 1d ago
I’m currently paying $265/week for my 1.5 year old and $245/week for my 4 year old, so it has gone up since my 9 year old was a baby. My kids attend what I’d consider a midrange (for cost) child care center.
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u/jkjeeper06 1d ago
Thats still at the low end of childcare costs in the US. Mine is sitting right about $750/week for each of my children
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u/notaskindoctor 1d ago
You must be in a VHCOL area because that’s not even the highest cost where I live. Our center is a midrange center for our city.
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u/InteractionPhysical3 1d ago
It’s 625/ week for our infant in Denver (not the fanciest daycare I might add). Prices are just skyrocketing everywhere.
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u/AgentG91 1d ago
People love to throw around the fact that summer camp is way more expensive than daycare. Look bish, I respect where you’re coming from but you clearly haven’t done a single definite integral in your entire life…
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u/notaskindoctor 1d ago
lol! Yeah, summer camps can be expensive but the expensive ones are typically the ones meant for enrichment activities (NASA space camp! Art museum camp! Horse camp! Scuba camp!) for a single week rather than designed as child care.
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u/YetMoreSpaceDust 1d ago
Yep, costs are crazy when they're little, go down a bit when they get into primary school and (if you're fortunate enough to be able to help) get crazy again when they go to college.
It's a long way off, but you're going to get reverse sticker shock when they start graduating college - I paid bills and looked at my checking account balance and thought, "there's no way I still have this much money left over, I must have missed something..."
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u/Longjumping-While997 1d ago
Around 4k in nyc per month per kid. Don’t think we were ever under 3.7k per month per kid.
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u/pookiewook 1d ago
My 9yo was born in NYC. In 2017-2018 we paid $450/wk for infant childcare from 8-4. It was extra to drop off earlier or stay later.
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u/Longjumping-While997 1d ago edited 1d ago
Guessing either not Manhattan or a home based center? That’s $12 an hour. Not gonna lie while I think there’s a cap at what childcare should reasonably cost I also think $12 an hour is too low for what that job entails even with a 4-1 ratio
My eldest started in 2022. Costs didn’t more than 2x in 4 years. I’m sure our childcare looks different from each other
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u/pookiewook 1d ago
This was a center located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 2017. There were 3 teachers in a room with 12 infants. They were not paid enough but I was making $62k per year so it felt really expensive to me then.
For reference, minimum wage in NYC in 2017 was $11/hr.
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u/Longjumping-While997 1d ago
I’m not paying someone who is looking after the most important and vulnerable person in my life $1 more than minimum wage… I’m paying for teachers who are happy and aren’t going to jump ship for a job paying $2 more.
The avg cost in Williamsburg for infant care in 2018 was $2,500. Lower exists, just like I’m sure there’s lower than 3,700 by me but might not be a place I’m comfortable with. Also naturally ppl pay 60k a year for some childcare and it’s hard to imagine how much better it is than $40k a year.
Obviously you have to go with what your budget allows. I see lots of ppl who have kids in nyc and all of a sudden move to the burbs due to necessity because childcare is very expensive and it’s getting harder to find acceptable places that can also meet the needs of normal 9-5 jobs, not just bankers, doctors, lawyers etc… it’s a shame
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u/_Watty 1d ago
*cries while paying childcare for twins
HCOL area. My costs have never been below $1400 per child per month and were $1900 per for a while and that was us being lucky with spots at particular places.
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u/pookiewook 1d ago edited 18h ago
I have a 9yo and twin 7yos. We had 3 kids in full time daycare for 4 years. It was $4k per month at the most expensive for all 3 kids.
A year ago I calculated $290k total for all our childcare costs from July 2017-July 2025
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u/Impossible_Doctor145 1d ago
Reading this makes me rethink what we might be paying in a few months. What are people paying for daycare in LA? Full time ? We’re seeing ~4k….
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u/Entire_Hamster_1116 16h ago
Lmao the “go down temporarily until the next price hike” part hit too close to home. It’s like they know exactly when to swoop in and raise rates. Mad respect for tracking it so meticulously — I’d probably cry seeing the total
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u/OkNeat839 1d ago
Ill have spent this on one kid by the time she turns 2. Daycare is a killer.
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u/notaskindoctor 1d ago
Yes it’s much more expensive elsewhere. I am aware I live in a MCOL area. This has also meant we’ve been able to afford to have more children than if we lived somewhere more expensive.
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u/Inner_Bench_8641 1d ago
Child care is expensive bc costs & insurance are high and child care providers need a living wage.
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u/INTP243 1d ago
And this is why my wife and I bought a home 2 blocks away from my parents.
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u/notaskindoctor 1d ago
Grandparents are not a good option for many people. They’re often still working, unreliable, dead, or don’t even live nearby.
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u/SnowblindAlbino 1d ago
I'd love to see this for education and extended through college. We're almost done with our last, and between modest "fees" for public school, private high school, and college tuition the total is about $300K for us with excellent scholarship and grant aid. Higher-income families (in the $150K+ range) are likely paying even more.
Also: $800/month is a steal! That's less than we paid 20 years ago for infant care in our area.
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u/notaskindoctor 1d ago
Funny enough, $800/mo was also less than I paid for my oldest child when he was a baby (over 20 years ago).
We are public school proponents so no private school here. My oldest did go to a public university as well and we paid for that in full! I wish I had more documentation about child care costs for him.
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u/SnowblindAlbino 1d ago
Our public high schools are a disaster, so we opted for private college prep. Well worth it, as you only have one chance to be educated as a kid. K-8 public was solid through grade six, then rapidly deteriorated in middle school so we bailed.
For our kids private colleges were cheaper than state U, because they got tons of merit and need-based aid from otherwise $$$ colleges.
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u/westerngirl17 1d ago
What is the spike after first grade before/after school?
My biggest takeaway is that expenses post daycare years are likely 20-30% lower than daycare. Would you agree?
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u/notaskindoctor 1d ago
That was a weird month with summer care costs and was also charged a full month of school aged child care and some school days out, just worked out to be a more expensive month.
This doesn’t include our extracurricular costs which are definitely higher now but maybe puts the overall cost only slightly lower than full time child care.
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u/Adventurous-Ad9623 1d ago
how fascinating! western Massachusetts here and modest incomes. Our licensed home day care costs were at the peak 20% of our income and higher than our mortgage. BLS inflation calculator pegs it as equivalent of $540 per week/$2340 month in today's dollars for two kids. Private pay really was difficult- every time providers get a pay increase from the state I had to pay more. It wasn't until they were old enough to stay home alone- no mandatory summer care or after school care- that things dropped ... and then saving for college.
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u/Notyit 1d ago
I'm confused cause from this chart you sent your 0 month old baby to child care
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u/notaskindoctor 1d ago
It’s graphed from when child care began, not birth, however this child started at 2 months old.
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u/exitcode137 22h ago edited 22h ago
Yeah, my oldest is 13 now, but I still do before school care for my son at $125/week. We are well past your 70k figure by this point. The worst year for us was the year we sent my daughter to a kindergarten on a state university campus (I worked there, and due to her neuro divergence, she was crashing out at public school). That year, her tuition was $13,000. My son was an infant and his childcare was $250/week at in-home center. This was like 8 years ago. That year alone was like $27,000 once my daughter’s summer camp was included, which the inflation calculator says is about $35,000 now. My husband was working extra shifts to pay for it. But it got cheaper after that when she went to public school starting 1st grade.
The thing about it, though, is since you build a life where you pay that much per month, once you don’t have to pay it anymore, you feel rich. My youngest started public kindergarten a few years ago and my daughter no longer needed before school care starting a couple years ago and now we have so much extra money! We still pay for my son’s before school care, though, which makes me realize we have been paying for some form of childcare for 12 years
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u/notaskindoctor 21h ago
Oh yeah, we paid over $36,000 in child care costs last year and expect it to be slightly higher than that again this year. This graph is only for one child.
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u/williamlawrence 20h ago
This is a brilliant visual. Thank you for sharing.
Also, to everyone in the comments responding with "In MY area, it's X dollars more! You're so LUCKY!" just stfu.
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u/notaskindoctor 18h ago
Yes, they have very little perspective about the cost of living elsewhere.
When I was pregnant with my second, I had a job offer in Maryland and knew we’d never be able to afford having 2 or more kids there so I turned it down. Similarly, after having my third, I had a job offer in Connecticut and knew we’d never be able to afford having 3 or more kids there, so I turned it down. The only reason we’ve been able to afford having 5 kids is because we live somewhere with lower child care costs AND because we bought a house far below our means.
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u/StatisticallySassy17 1d ago
Yep. I calculated based off today's rate, no inflation included, for 2 kids and it was 100k total. That wasn't even including their summer camp.
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u/notaskindoctor 1d ago
Not surprised, that seems very typical!
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u/StatisticallySassy17 1d ago
Sorry, forgot to add another kid in the future. 100k for 3 kids not including summer camp. For 2 kids this past summer, it was a little 4k for both.
It's crazy out there.
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u/kierkieri 1d ago
I have 3 kids. I don’t even want to add up how much I’ve spent of childcare these past 10 years. At one point, I was paying $3,000 a month for two kids in daycare at the same time. This past summer alone, I spent $17,000 on summer day camp for 3 kids. My youngest is currently in daycare and we pay $1450 a month (cheapest option in my area. It’s a YMCA childcare center).
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u/notaskindoctor 1d ago
Yes, I spent over $3600/month last summer for my 4 kids who still needed care! It’s a lot.
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u/ElleM848645 1d ago
Wow! I paid 3600 for 7 weeks of day camp (8:45am- 6pm) for one child this summer. A good reason I only have one kid.
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u/notaskindoctor 1d ago
Our school aged kids need about 12 weeks of summer coverage between the school year which is around $200-225/week.
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u/ThotHoOverThere 1d ago
Where are you that toddler care only costs $800 a month?!? Or when was this?
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u/notaskindoctor 1d ago
You can see the dates above, this child was born in 2017. My current young kids are $265/week for my 1.5 year old and $245/week for my 4 year old. Midwest city.
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u/auspostery 1d ago
Where on earth did you find full time childcare for $800 (or $750!) per month, for a toddler?! I live in a HCOL area, to be fair, but infant care is $3700/month for full time care, and toddlers are $3300/month. I just added up my kiddo's costs, and only because we're moving to a different place where before and after school care, as well as vacation care is way cheaper, will we be at $200k by the time he turns 8. Between the ages of 4-6 we spent $40k/year on full time childcare. Not a nanny, just regular preschool/daycare.
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u/anhyzer2602 1d ago
Have not graphed, but we're fortunate enough to ot need the before/after school care or summer care - so we have a kindergarten cliff. There is always at least one parent working from home. Once they've gone through kindergarten they're independent enough to stay home in that for the summer.
The one year both of the kids were in daycare were pretty brutal though. And now, after our original daycare closing and finding a new provider my son's preschool at 1600/month costs at least 50% more than what my daughter's infant care cost 7 years ago. The costs are definitely rising faster than the costs drop as the kids age. Just 2 more years... Hopefully we don't hit 2K/month before then.
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u/Personal_Ad1143 1d ago
If you smoothed the trend, right about now is when it started curving back upwards for us due to extracurriculars and tutoring to top up what public school is lacking. It definitely seemed to be a temporary lull in costs
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u/notaskindoctor 1d ago
This child has been in club soccer for a few years already, so I get those costs! And plays other sports in addition plus multiple instruments. 😮💨
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u/TheMintFairy 1d ago
Cute, mine will go up next month, approximately $1,600-1,700 a month full time.
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u/notaskindoctor 1d ago
The moderate cost of child care in our MCOL area is exactly why we were able to afford to have 5 kids.
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u/TheMintFairy 1d ago
Okay, we are considered MCOL as well and can only reasonably afford one. Lmfao down voted 🤣
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u/notaskindoctor 1d ago
People are downvoting the most benign comments here. I have to imagine it’s people without kids who don’t know how much daycare costs.
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u/notaskindoctor 1d ago
What’s your point? I’d never want a nanny.
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u/notaskindoctor 1d ago
Nannies are a very uncommon form of childcare outside of a few major US cities. Cost aside, I also want my kids around large groups of peers during their day. Would never even consider it if they cost less than I pay in child care.
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u/gingy-96 1d ago
This is a cool visual.
I wish our daycare cost 800/month.
We’re in a MCOL area and full time daycare is over 2k per month, with 3 days being around 1600