No, you don't. Expensive activities aren't necessary when you have kids. Do you really think people aren't raising kids in SF?

SF leads the US in childlessness.

https://sfist.com/2022/05/24/sf-still-the-most-childless-cit...

Do you have kids? Do you live in the bay area? Based on your response, I think either one or both of these answers are no. Kids need interaction with others and physical activity to have a healthy childhood. In the bay, most kids are in these structured activities. That means either your kid goes to these, or they stay at home and play videogames or play with you (which doesn't have them learn and grow from other kids their age). I get that elsewhere is different, but not here.

I don't have kids and won't have kids, but I definitely didn't have those things growing up in a suburb. It's not at all required unless you're homeschooling.

This is a case of lifestyle inflation and then complaining about lifestyle inflation. Public school is good enough, your kids aren't better than the rest of the people in SF.

Ok got it, so your answer is you don't have kids and you don't live in the bay area. I grew up in the suburbs in another state, didn't do those "expensive activities" you're talking about, and am well aware of what you're trying to say. But I also live in the bay area now, and have kids, and can confidently say that it's a different experience for kids than what you are talking about.

> But I also live in the bay area now, and have kids, and can confidently say that it's a different experience for kids than what you are talking about.

The different experience is that you make more than your parents did at your age and thus have lifestyle inflation.

The IT guy for a car dealership in Milwaukee is allowed this kind of "lifestyle inflation" no problem. The point of Silicon Valley is that high level and differentiated computer skills can make you rich. Part of that might be slumming it a bit during the early stages of your career or startup, hence the commandment against lifestyle inflation. But in a career role, your Silicon Valley TC better give you a better lifestyle than what’s generic computer guy gets from a non-tech business in a normal metro area. And given prices here, that’s a big number.

Obviously Bay Area amenities are worth something. Are they worth descending an entire social class? Maybe to some. But I think most rational people will go fix the computers at that car dealership, and put their kids on the travel team. You are not obliged to live an austere life just because someone offered you a (locally) mediocre job in the Bay Area.

The IT guy at a car dealership isn't expecting to pay full price for private schools and then complaining when it wipes out almost all of their take home pay. That's probably because the IT guy for a car dealership is making $70k not $500k a year.

Nobody's "descending a social class" by sending their kids to public school or having them do normal stuff, this is hysterical.

I grew up on the Peninsula and my parents were not paying for any of this stuff. Public school parents organized soccer games and park days and other times we just road cheap bicycles around and went to each others houses and occasionally caused trouble.

Sounds like a fun childhood :)

Felt relatively safe and of course once we got older we would just hop on caltrain for super cheap and head up to SF. Told our parents we were going to "the movie theater". New Years in San Francisco at age 13 was definitely interesting