As kids dream about the end of the school year and count down the final days until summer break, many parents are facing a nightmare. Over 62% of parents say they’re dreading summer break due to the additional financial strain. While school is in session, children are accounted for most of the day but once the academic year is over, parents say they are scrambling to afford or provide care.
A survey of U.S. parents by CouponBirds, an online discount code website, reveals that parents are struggling. Four out of five parents are working more hours or taking on extra jobs to pay for their children, with childcare being a major expense. The report shows that about half of parents spend at least a quarter of their income on childcare, while almost 25% say they spend more than half of their salary on it.
“Parents are exhausting their earnings and draining their savings in the first five years of their child’s life,” Sean Lacey, the general manager of child care for Care.com told Bloomberg in January.
The cost of childcare has risen by 220% over the last three decades. In 2023, a U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau report investigated child care costs in local areas across the country finding when adjusted for 2022 inflation, the median price of care for one child ranged from $5,357 to $17,171 depending on the type of provider, age of the child and county population size. According to the report, this is about 8% to 19% of a median family income.
Summer camps serve as an option to keep kids busy and taken care of when school’s out. According to the American Camp Association, an estimated 20 million kids attend summer camp each year, and costs range greatly depending on the type of programming. Care.com reports that the average price of day camp is around $178, with specialty camps that focus on a specific activity such as STEM or soccer, starting at $270 per week. Sleepaway camps, which provide overnight care, all meals and lodging, averages at $448.53 per day per person.
This year, Care.com’s Cost of Care report found that more than one-third of parents have dug into their savings to afford childcare, which may have a larger impact on the economy.
“A healthy economy depends upon the ability for people to save and spend, but given the crushing weight of child care costs, those pillars are crumbling. The child care crisis should be a major red flag for everyone, not just parents. It is a systemic failure that will impact our nation’s economic growth, and that affects us all,” Brad Wilson, CEO of Care.com, said in January.
They say it takes a village, but it also takes clothes, food and shelter. The other essential costs of raising children – such as diapers, after school classes, and toys were not factored into the CouponBirds survey. The U.S. Department of Agriculture previously published an annual raising a child into adulthood report, but it has been updated since 2017. Last month, U.S. News & World Report adjusted the data for 2024′s inflation. They reported that in today’s economy it costs an estimated $312,202 to raise a child born into a middle class, married couple.
Moms bare the brunt of the childcare crisis
These expenses are holding back moms, especially. In 2022, more than 1 in 10 children under 5 had a parent who had to quit, turn down or drastically change a job due to issues with child care, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health. An April 2024 report by the Associated Press, found mothers, especially those without college degrees, had few options and often faced financial stress. According to the AP, they are most likely to not have paid leave, and be forced to leave a job to care for their children.
“The stay-at-home moms in this country are disproportionately mothers who’ve been pushed out of the workforce because they don’t make enough to make it work financially to pay for child care,” Jessica Calarco, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison told the AP in April.
Mothers are sacrificing their careers and cutting costs where they can. About 64% of respondents in the CouponBirds survey said they’re skipping meals or have before due to the financial burden of parenting. Still, 43% said they struggle to pay their mortgage or rent because of childcare costs.
As more reports expose the true cost of raising a family, younger generations are choosing to forgo having children all together. As Reckon reported in April, about 31% of American adults, including 38% of millennials who aren’t parents, say they don’t plan to have kids because raising a child is too expensive.
“America’s childcare crisis is just that: a crisis for the entire country and it impacts us all, whether you have children or not,” former Care.com CEO Tim Allen said last June. “Childcare is claiming a disproportionate amount of household incomes and a decade of rising childcare costs should be a wakeup call that the system as we know it completely fails the vast majority of families.”