Adding a second child nearly doubles childcare costs because sibling discounts average only 10%

When a family enrolls a second child in daycare, their total childcare bill nearly doubles because sibling discounts typically range from just 7-15%, saving maybe $150/month against a $2,400/month combined bill. For a two-child family, average annual childcare spending exceeds $28,000, which would require a household income of $400,000 to meet the HHS affordability benchmark of 7% of income. This happens because a provider's costs genuinely do not decrease for siblings -- each child requires the same ratio of staff time, meals, and space. The result is that the decision to have a second child is increasingly a financial impossibility for middle-income families, contributing to the US birth rate hitting historic lows.