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!

My DC are teens and both have had orthodontic treatment which was free.
I did end up paying a small amount for DS glasses when he was about 11 or 12 because the only free ones for boys were football related or had eg spiderman on them! (But the glasses were £35 iirc)
Both now want to wear contact lenses which are not free but they don't wear them every day so again not massively expensive.

Childcare years.
Teens are definitely expensive but nowhere near as much as nursery fees.

Obviously childcare. I'm sure teens aren't cheap, but they're not £70 a day! I think it's more that lifestyle inflation creeps in once nursery bills are over.
If uour teens are costing anything close to £70 a day I suggest using the word "no" occasionally and telling them to get a job.

Childcare years more expensive in terms of total cost but always knew how much it would be and was planned into budget .
teen years seems to be full of costs you don’t expect . Eg the school decide they are now having iPads which you have to pay for or a school trip away somewhere . Extra curricular activities get expensive too especially if they are competing but that is optional of course .

The teenager years. Huge amounts of money on clothes and outing and holidays.

Until last year, I would have said childcare years but dear God this past year has been extortionate, however I suppose alot of it has been a choice, even if it hasn't felt like a choice - braces, tutor, trips with scouts, trips with school. Also the childcare years were pricey for several years, I didn't find pre-teen / early teen years that bad at all, so I'm hopeful that this year and next will be a peak.

My teen (about to start uni) went on one school trip abroad in the whole of secondary school. It was around £800. Others were offered but either we couldnt afford it, she didn't want to go, or she didn't get a place on the ballot to go (several were oversubscribed)
Uni will be expensive and we will no longer get CB but probably still not as much as ft childcare

My teen DD has the most expensive hobbies it was possible to choose. However, it is our choice to fund it all and we see how much pleasure she gets from both activities. She's not a typical teen, always needing fancy clothes or make up etc. She lives in hoodies and combats, doesn't wear makeup but instead follows her passions and appreciates the sacrifices we make to allow it. But childcare seemed a breeze compared to her bills now 🤣🤣

Mine don’t have expensive hobbies, but they eat massive amounts of food, grow constantly and two of them are at private school!
I do remember the nursery days though. Probably comparable.
they were all cheaper when at primary school.

Thanks everyone. Some of these posts are making me feel better! Private school definitely isn't in our budget, so hopefully we can make the most of the few years before childcare ending and the later teen years starting to save, save, save!

I don't want my teens to miss out on opportunities, but at the same time I don't have a problem making them get a job and not saying yes to everything.

This is true - but the bar for medical dentistry is set quite high, for example, and fixing gappy and protruding teeth that don’t meet the criteria is still something many parents would do if they feel self conscious. Doing that privately is expensive and not an extravagance, in my opinion

OP, do remember that outside of mumsnet, most kids do not go on ski trips or tours of Dubai. These are luxury holidays, not unmissable "opportunities". They would probably benefit more from a Saturday job realistically.

This last year DD16 has probably cost us around £10k including private orthodontist and various trips, hobbies, days out, clothes so it's on par with childcare for us.

I know there are jobs but I'm.pretty sure there aren't the same volume of "Saturday jobs" that there were when I was a teen.
I worked in retail as a teen in the late 1990s and worked Saturday, Sunday and late night Thursday. I'm pretty sure now all that would be covered by full timers or part timers with various shift patterns rather than a teen who just did those hours

Sorry slightly off topic but as a response to all those suggesting teens get Saturday jobs to fund their school trips etc!

This is true, it was getting harden even when i was a teen. But plenty don't even try because mum and dad just pay for everything. In the real world, parents aren't spending £10k a year on their teenagers, so don't feel like you have to. Living within their means, or working for what they want is probably more valuable than skiing.

Personally the teen years were more expensive. We didn't use paid childcare as we worked opposite shifts when ours were preschoolers and then I worked term time when they were at primary school.

I've helped mine with driving lessons. Clothes and other needs/wants are more expensive and where I am you have to pay a fortune in bus fare to get them to college. Then once they leave college there is a bit of a transition period between child support such as tax credits/child benefit ending and them getting a full time job so you have to support them with no help even if your job is low paid. As a single parent this has been an expensive point in raising them. Mine opted not to go to uni so I'm not sure how it would have worked out if they had.

DD'S glass haven't been free since she was about 12 and not because she choose designer frames but because she doesn't fit in child's frames so we have to pay for adult frames. Also we have to pay for dental treatment and have had to for years hear.

For us the teenage years will definitely be more expensive but we didn't have the cost of nursery fees when they where little and we are looking at both going to university. So it will cost us a lot in that regard. 😕

I do think it's primarily posters who didn't have to pay for childcare who say this.

The biggest difference between childcare and typical teens costs is that if you're having a tight month financially, you can't just not pay for childcare, but you can say "no, darling, no more new clothes this month"

DD gets her "adult" frames free... the voucher covers any frames up to a certain cost.

We didn’t have childcare costs but two teens at university when they only get minimum maintenance loan has been the most expensive time for us.

I have three teens (one at university) and yes, it is expensive but still cheaper than childcare.

For those saying they had no childcare costs, I'd be interested to know how that was achieved. Eg was that due to juggling shifts between parents (one example up thread), reliance on grandparents/other family, or one parent not working full time? If the latter, shouldn't the cost of foregone salary be included?

We had no childcare costs as we couldn't afford childcare... so I didn't work!

It really depends.

Childcare are fixed costs you have every months. Teens are expensive but not as regular and you can save up for this.

They will grow out of children clothes sizes, DD was 13 when 15-16 at M&S didn't work anymore, so you have to pay VAT. Her friend was in shoe size 7 by 13.
Less second hand options unless they are going Vinted all the way.

Eating out - most kids meals won't feed a 11 year old.

Holidays - often entry prices are adult ones. They won't be sleeping on pull-out sofas so you need a second bedroom and that could mean no free child place. Activities are more expensive.

Hobbies - the sky is your limit. DD loves Scouts and I agree it's fairly cheap. Others you may start getting used to throwing money at start very young like riding, dance, performing arts.

School - that's where the money goes, more expensive uniform, bags, equipment has to be bought, books maybe.
School trips can be eyewatering, not everyone goes but on the other hand it can be a fantastic opportunity.
You will have to save for a laptop and phone.

Primary school was one of the cheaper years despite wrap around childcare, cheap uniform, hardly any school costs, happy with cheap days out, holidays were easy.

Childcare years.
Although things that add up:
Uniform, now I can't get it at asda.
School shoes.
Phone contract/pocket money (although they don't get much)
Occasional school trip or activity related stuff
Water and electricity for their epic showers
Not food. I must have only ds on mn who isn't a strapping, sporty boy who wolfs down food and loves his mum. I have a skinny, cynical one who eats like a bird.
Holidays. Kids become adults very young in the holiday world.