Becoming a parent means not only taking care of your children from day to day but also thinking about their futures. It’s hard to imagine it when they’re babies, but in about 18 years, they might have dreams of going to college. And it would be great if their mother and father could financially support their education. But should stepparents be expected to contribute too?
One man recently reached out to Reddit for advice after his teenage stepson began pressuring him to contribute to his college fund. Below, you’ll find all of the details, as well as some of the replies invested readers shared.
Paying for their children’s higher education can be a huge burden for parents
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So this man was extremely hesitant to start contributing to his stepson’s college fund
Image credits: Charles DeLoye / unsplash (not the actual photo)
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On average, college tuition in the United States costs students over $38,000 per year
After graduating from high school, many of us face an immense amount of pressure to continue our education. After all, having a college degree will increase your access to future job opportunities, and will likely increase how much you’ll earn throughout your career as well. But one of the biggest barriers that people face when applying to college is not being able to afford it.
Education Data reports that in the United States, the average cost of college tuition is $38,270 per student per year. And if you want to attend a private university, you can expect to pay around $58,628 annually. This means that a college degree costs most students upwards of $100,000. That’s not exactly easy for a teenager who’s been working at a fast food joint to pay for.
Because of these exorbitant costs, many students rely on their parents to fund their education. This also means that parents are under an increasing amount of pressure to start a college fund for their kids from a very young age.
According to Northwestern Mutual’s 2024 Planning & Progress Study, 95% of American parents who are saving for their kids to go to college expect to cover more than half of the cost of their kids’ education. And over a third of parents expect their kids to cover up to a quarter of the cost of their tuition.
Apparently, over a third of American families have a college savings fund for their children’s education, such as a 529 plan. Meanwhile, the average 529 account balance is around $30,295, which might not even cover one year of tuition for some students.
Parents often have to resort to other measures to help fund their children’s education, such as taking out loans or using other savings and investments. In fact, nearly a quarter of parents admit that they’ve dipped into their retirement savings to ensure their kids could go to college.
Even without a substantial college fund, many students still find a way to fund their education
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At the same time, the average student at a public university borrows about $31,960 to pay for their education. And the average federal student loan debt balance is over $39,000.
While it’s understandable for parents to want to fund their children’s higher education, is it really fair for stepparents to be held to the same expectation? It really depends on the individual family and the dynamic that they have. If someone has grown up with their stepdad being the only father figure they’ve ever known, and he doesn’t have any other children, he might be more willing to help pay for university.
But when a parent already has three other children to help put through college, an additional tuition can be a massive burden. And while it may not be ideal, there are other routes that the teenager in this story can take to pay for college.
He can apply for scholarships, grants, federal financial aid and even take loans. He can get a job that will help him pay for his tuition, and he can even take classes at a community college for a couple of years to significantly reduce how much he’ll have to pay to finish his degree.
Nobody wants to have to struggle to pay for their education, but thousands of people make it work every single day. And this teenager can certainly still get a great education if he puts his mind to it.
We would love to hear your thoughts on this situation in the comments below, pandas. Then, if you’d like to read another Bored Panda article discussing college fund drama, look no further than right here.
Some readers assured the author that his stepson’s education was not his problem, and he joined in on the conversation to share more details
However, others thought that contributing to his stepson’s college fund would be the right thing to do
