What's more expensive: the childcare years or the teen years?

[Oddsox1]

Currently paying £1000 a month for 3 days nursery for one child. Second child due to start soon.

Someone please please reassure me that teens won't cost this much?! Chatting to a friend has scared me!

Childcare years definitely for us.

Childcare isn't really optional. A lot of the stuff teens want (not need) is.

Teens are expensive in different ways- for example one of mine is going on the ski trip, hockey tour and another residential trip this year- 3k just like that. Then all the other extra curricular activities etc. yes they are optional but they like doing them and good for their development.

Yes, teen stuff is optional (DD has an expensive hobby, but gets only as much of that as I can afford, it's not an essential, and she appreciates it and works hard)

Some of my friends DDs have £100s spent on them on pocket money, prom, outings. DD doesn't!

And has lovely friends who also go to each others houses to hang out and have fun without having money spent on them. Maybe a frozen pizza for tea now and again...

Good childcare is essential. It is good for teens to learn about having a budget, and making careful choices about money. And not to use money to buy friends or happy experiences.

The teen years were more expensive for us, but impossible to compare really as life generally is more expensive as time goes on. They eat loads more, wear adult size clothes, need different clothes for more activities/sport, do trips and camps and workshops, have tutoring and extra courses for GCSEs, have hobbies and trips/nights out with friends, do uni visits etc. I've never added it up and done an inflation-adjusted comparison but it certainly feels more expensive!

Teens can be expensive, I probably spend getting on for £1100 a month on one, but that does include private medical appointments that cost about £450 a month on average. Obviously driving lessons aren’t compulsory either.

I think a lot of teen cost could be viewed as optional (subject/music tuition/sports/phone to name a few).

Your job doesn’t depend on it in the same way it does when they are little.

Definitely the childcare years. The fee is the fee and that’s it, to keep your job you have to keep paying it (even when they are poorly with bugs they got at the nursery). Once they are teenagers their clothes, food and hobbies are expensive but still something you can budget around.

From 6 months to the end of year 6, our childcare bill had come to around £35k.

I wouldn't be able to afford that, so DD wouldn't go. There are plenty of 'developmental ' activities that cost a lot less.

Try Scouts/Guides, if you are part of a faith community there are often youth activities.

Our local authority has various subsidised activities.

As I said, it is 'developmental ' to learn how to have fun without much money.

Definitely the teen years. DS has an expensive hobby which totally dwarfs the cost of child care, which itself was eye watering at the time. His sport is optional, but he gets so much out of it and really has changed his life for the better. Feel a bit cringe writing that but it's true.
The amount of food they go through as teens is a bit ridiculous too, I frequently feel like I'm being eaten out of house and home!

You cut your coat to suit your cloth.

Yes, teens can get a lot out of a hobby they take seriously, but that is optional and a bit of a luxury. Plus, after a certain point they can.often 'pay' for some of it by helping with the younger ones.

Childcare is not optional or a luxury.

My teens did as hobbies:

St John Ambulance cadets (cheap)
Scouts (cheap)
Guides (briefly)
Martial arts (pretty cheap)
Music (lessons were expensive. Bands/orchestras generally free or cheap)

Lying around in their rooms annoying the cats (free)

DS got a Saturday job at 16.

Yes, plenty of good developmental experiences at minimal cost.

Though annoying cats is a high risk activity, I wouldn't recommend it 😂

Definitely the childcare years, the teen years tend to be more expensive than the primary years (even after wrap around childcare) but can still give them a good life without signing them up to 2k skiing trips and the like

Oh my children do lots of cheaper stuff too- Sunday school (lots of activities), drama/ musical theatre, various sports.

I have one teen and one younger. Agree with others it's hard to describe but lots is optional really whilst childcare isn't.
Plus they have some concept of money so for example my eldest is absolutely against £3k school ski trip when she knows our one abroad holiday cost 2/3 of that for all 3 of us.
You might also find you earn more by then with 12 years experience in work?

Teens cost a fortune - some things are optional but replacing clothes and shoes (all adult sizes) as they grow like weeds is not, especially when they have opinions about what they want to wear. they also eat like horses.

They may also need things like teeth straightening, glasses, hair cuts - all at adult prices and not cheap.

Other things are optional, but having extra tuition in the run up to exams (£30 an hour), hobbies (not necessarily hugely expensive but if you have more than one teenager, it does add up)

Then there are school trips, travel, days out with friends, gym memberships, mobile phone contracts, school lunches (which were free to all primary kids where we live)

Personally, I have found primary school years by far the cheapest. Young kids and teenagers equally expensive.

Definitely way less than £1000 a month on my teens until the age of 18.

University however is really expensive if they decide to go, especially if you have two or more there at once, so could easily be well over £1000 a month.

I have both a teen and one in nursery. The teen does not cost me £1400 a month.

My goodness, do your kids go to private school?

I suppose it depends on what you see as 'essential'

To me tutoring, gym membership, anything other than the most basic phone contract, ski trips, school lunches (DD takes a packecd lunch) are not 'essential'.

Until 18 any necessary dental.treatment and sight tests and glasses are free. Not if it is cosmetic or designer glasses of course. But the essentials are free, and beyond that you choose to pay.

No- grammar.

Early childcare years for us were far more expensive than teen years.

I think Uni years will be hideously expensive though and even with us subbing our DC they'll leave Uni in debt.

As well as the teen expenses being optional, lots of people are able to earn more when the kids are older, either through promotions or working full time instead of part time. Supporting them through the bit after they pass their test and need to pay crazy insurance is expensive but you share the burden with a young adult. Childcare is all on you and unless you are fortunate the choice is pay it, one of you quit work, or get dovetailing shifts which doesn't work for many people.

Childcare costs are a bill that's unavoidable for most if you want/need to keep working.

Ds1 is 12 now and all of his costs are optional really. Hobbies - cost what they cost but you can pick and choose based on price. DS went through a phase of wanting to take up Karting for example but he's had to accept that it's too expensive a hobby so it's not possible. He's just as happy with his football team and gym membership.

His pocket money will go up as he enters teens, so too will the expectation of helping at home.

Uniform is significantly higher than primary.

Clothing in general is more because he wants labels now. Again, it's in moderation and some labels are just a plain no which I have no problem with as it's a lesson to learn.

Food - that will go up soon as he really hits puberty.

He won't cost me the same as DS2's childcare fees until he gets to uni I expect though there are a few trips at school coming up that o suspect he'd like to go on.

my childcare costs were nothing compared to tween / teen costs. BUt mine never went to nursery. Just preschool and then wrap around. Their hobbies are more expensive. The kit to go with them, the fees. School trips. Uniform. Shoes. My god adult pricea for children’s shows is an absolute disgrace. Year 6’s should nit be paying adult prices for shoes because they are a size 6. Clothes. Holiday costs are more expensive.