Giving children exposure vs saving for a child

Today i read a post from moneyhabit.org where the writer who is in the twentys is already retired with 2.8m $ in savings ( wow!).

Basically the writer talks about that in the us the education and other activities for a child is almost 20k usd per annum . She also says that by investing 30% of this, one can provide almost a million $ for the child towards a college education.  The saving she says comes from cutting on some wasteful expenditures ( eg buying only second hand electronics... interesting ideas) but also by not sending them for too many courses through the years.

While i agree with the nice cut in the wasteful expenditures i am not fully convinced about the cutting of the different courses through their growing up period.

These courses enable personality developments and strong social bonding and skills .. all which will hold the child in good stead when they grow up. A lot of these are NOT wasteful expenditures and enable the children to be able up to manage the issues that come up inadvertently later on in life.

Are these educational experiences better than the 1mn$ saved.... i dont know. Each of us as parents need to decide for themselves as to what is better. Its our test of parenthood .

I do believe that sometimes we pamper our children too much and they are all depending on us passing on significant money to them as they grow up. Its a great safety cushion... but only when used as a safety cushion and not when they take it for granted and dont do enough to be successful themselves.

Its not easy... but its a decision that each of us needs to make.... thats simplefinancialsense