• I'm a father who uses most of my expendable income on my kids' after-school activities. • I worry that giving my kids unlimited access to all these expensive activities will be unfair. • I'm now ensuring my kids interact with children of different socioeconomic backgrounds.

In suburban Philadelphia, they'll teach your baby to swim for $1,050.

A lifeguard-turned-PhD developed a program to train kids to become comfortable in water before they can even walk, and then they franchised it around the country. Now my wife and I have to decide if we're going to pay to see if our baby can float.

It's part of the dizzying array of decisions that confront parents with any expendable money, beginning even before birth. There are sleep coaches, automated bassinets, and early SAT prep.

For me,

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