So who's buying those five thousand dollar strollers, luxury crib linens, and infant wardrobes that rival any adult's? Apparently New Yorkers! Parents in the Big Apple, America's most expensive city, are the ones spoiling their kids the most, creating real life million dollar babies.
According to an infographic released by Bundle.com ranking the amount parents spend on their posh tots, on average Manhattanites spend more than double the national average on their children.
The national average for money spent on a child from birth to 18 years old is about $500,000.
Music superstars Jay-Z and Beyonce are prime examples of what New Yorkers will do for their tots. Reportedly they purchased a $3500 crib and a $5200 pink crystal-studded baby diamond bathtub to complete the 2,200 square foot nursery for their new daughter, Blue Ivy Carter.
And it is not just celebrities who are indulging their children. It is not uncommon for everyday families to use whatever leverage they have to get their two-year-old into a preschool that costs twice as much as most college tuitions.
Coming in a close second in this ranking is the neighboring borough of Brooklyn, where thousand dollar Bugaboo strollers are common place. It is no surprise that Brooklyn and Manhattan are the two wealthiest neighborhoods in New York City. Miami, Florida and Minneapolis, Minnesota round out the list of the top five cities where kids are the most spoiled.
At the other end of the spectrum are frugal Midwestern towns that spend less than half of the national average on their children. The bottom five cities where parents spend the least on their kids, making them ostensibly the least spoiled, are Columbus, Ohio, Indianapolis, Ind., Milwaukee, Wis., St. Paul, Minn., and Madison, Wis.
Bundle.com, which is a website devoted to providing unbiased, data-driven rankings, created this ranking of the 36 cities where the kids are the most spoiled.
To compile this list, they first examined the money spent by households with children at stores that sell toys, clothing and other services for children of all ages.
Then they identified all the locations where they had a reasonable sample size and calculated the average amount these households spent over the last three years.
Finally they ranked the cities based on the percentage each city spent above or below the national average to create the list.
Sources:
Bundle.com. Web. 6 June 2012. "Cities that spoil their kids the most". http://www.bundle.com/article/cities-spoil-their-kids-most
Yahoo.com. Web. 6 June 2012. "Cities where kids are the most spoiled". http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/cities-where-kids-most-spoiled-201700290.html
Reviewed June 7, 2012
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith