“People joke when you’re going to have a baby how you’d better start saving for college. But you don’t expect to be paying for college six months into being a parent.”
Kate LaBeau is a working mom who lives with her husband, Ryan Wigly, and their daughter, Sloane, 2, near Kirke Park in Ballard. She’s also pregnant, which means she and Ryan are on the verge of an enormous expense: two children in full-time child care.
They’re not the only ones. On Kate’s block, there are five families with children under five years old. Altogether, they will spend about $200,000 on child care in 2026…