Using 1972-2000 data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES), a nationally representative survey of spending conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this paper investigates changes in the income-based gap in monetary investments in children under the age of six, when most children typically have entered school in the United States. The article finds that inequality across the income distribution in parental spending on young children has grown steadily over the years since the early 1970s, and that greater gaps between households at the top of the income distribution and other portions of the income distribution result from greater spending by the rich. Results from a decomposition analysis suggest that small growth in spending occurred because of changes in wives' role in the household and parental education, but that the largest share of change is attributable to increased income at the top of the income distribution. High-income parents today have higher incomes and are more likely to use those high incomes to spend on their young children. Tables and figures are appended. [SREE documents are structured abstracts of SREE conference symposium, panel, and paper or poster submissions.]