Cost of raising a child in Poland

Hi all,

Just out of curiosity to see if my budget is right

How much a month a baby should cost average stuff like food, jars etc... clothes , medications, not including child care.

any Moms and daddies out there please help .

Thanks

As a daddy of 3, I can only say it can cost quite a lot, but we never made any detailed calculations because it wouldn`t make sense. Besides, we seldom buy clothes because we get them from family and friends whose kids grew up.

I can tell you that a big packet of Pampers diapers costs from 40 to 50 zlotys.

Hi Zion, if you have a kid on the way best of luck. You will probably spend what you can afford is my best guess.

so for budget only purposes 1500zl a month should be enough

It depends on the age of the child. Private pre-school runs about 1500. a month.

no way. In Warsaw it is closer to 800 pln

Rising a child? Just lift them up from a chair, it's free ;)

Raising a child can be more expensive if you want the child to grow up to have the best chances in life.

Wow. My child's pre-school is 1500 with meals and it is the cheapest that I found for a normal, Polish pre-school.

Why do you care? You're living the dream in the UK aren't you?

Aren't you in Wroclaw?

If so, the going rate is much lower - where on earth are you paying so much?

For instance - wesole-zabki.pl

Or even that new American kindergarten is only charging 1000 a month in a brand new building.

we have had two girls go through Polish preschools. We haven't paid over 1000 pln per month for either of them, including meals --we live in Warsaw.

There are 3 private pre-schools in my neighborhood and they all charge from 1200 to 1600 (I am including meals). I looked at the new American school but it isn't for us (no need to elaborate here).

From my memories with pre-schools ... the Place of Abode registration address mattered for cost. When your registered address was outside the catchment area the costs went up quite steeply.

And the meals ... oh my goodness :D

What neighbourhood is that?

I'm most familiar with the area near Hala Stulecia (not a cheap area) - and for instance - male-gwiazdki.pl/oplaty.html - comes in at 1100zl for 12 hours and 5 meals a day.

I'm looking around now in Wroclaw, and 1000zl a month including all meals, in a very nice private nursery seems to be the going rate. Of course, there are more expensive ones, but for a "normal, but decent" one - 700-1000zl is about the going rate, and that's for all day.

(as for the American one, I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole - it's ran by Indians.)

Still can't wrap my head round paying 1500zl for a normal Polish pre-school though...

of course you could just raise your own kids instead of paying someone else to do it...just a thought...:)

Not for me to judge ;)

(I am wondering though - do people really leave their kids for 12 hours a day at a nursery? it sounds awful.... )

Not sure many people leave their kids for 12 hours. Ours goes for 6 hours max, 4 days a week, loves it and gets to interact with people his own age not only his parents.

Outwith your comment I get annoyed with the attitude that being at home only is best for pre-school kids. Seems a very Polish mentality.

Common in the West, too. In fact, it's very fashionable these days for kids to stay at home instead of actually socialising with their peers.

I hear where you're coming from but, from a recent UK perspective, I don't agree, nurseries are the norm there. Whereas here some people regard it almost as child neglect to use a childcare facility under 5yrs old.

Just my experience

I would guess this means the hours that the pre-school is open - and you pay the fee regardless of when your child is 'present'.

Someone who goes to work for 0700 is hooped in our local area because the pre-school doesn't open until 0700 -- 0600 would be much better. Correspondingly, someone with an office job and leaving work at 1700 might hope it was open until 1800. There's 12 hours with hopefully a range of meals depending on when the little darlings are around.

I think anyone who has combined a job with pre-school is happy to see some 'extra' time around the hours they need it. Nothing worse than sitting in a traffic-jam behind an accident knowing Pani is sucking her teeth as she checks her watch every 2 minutes.

It depends. Are you looking at an assimilated or a Jewish experience? If assimilated (and as a Jewish American who went to a private Christian school-- long megillah--, I'm taking my best guess here), you'll probably have less expenses. If Jewish (Messianic especially)-- b'tzlacha; watch the budget!