My experience with 3 girls (one gifted athlete, one non athletic, one in the middle) was that every dime we spent on youth sports was probably wasted. The gifted one didn't discover her passion until adulthood and that's climbing. Average athlete found Ultimate in college and that was her passion (maybe soccer helped a bit there), and my non-athlete did do and still does swimming for exercise but hated the racing part of it (but loved practices, lol). The years of soccer/lacrosse/basketball/swimming/ice skating were probably not as meaningful as I thought they would be. I prefer not to quantify the total cost because it probably would have gone a long way towards college tuition.
Sounds like they all found a joy in healthy physical fitness. Perhaps that could have been found more cheaply and the money could have gone to college. But then again, maybe not. I doubt the kids feel the money was poorly spent.
Personally, I feel like money spent on swimming is never wasted, but then I swam on my high school team and have fond memories. To me, though, it's just so sad to see people who don't swim well, seeing their discomfort at pools and beaches. Or having to worry about them because they don't understand how little they know and how much danger they put themselves in. Basic swim lessons are often very reasonable as well as team dues. It's not, in my experience, an expensive sport.
this-Almost every girl on my daughter's Jr High VB team is also on a club team -- meaning they play most of the year. Many have taken private instruction and/or joined athletic performance clubs. And we're not talking about getting ahead of others, simply keeping up. Sadly, it's just the way youth sports are these days.
then add the self esteem issues of not even making the 1st cut (even in middle school) for someone who is pretty good at sports--but the coaches are only interested in Club players--this gets debated/stressed out by parents in affluent neighborhoods all over.
DH thinks it's ridiculous. In his day, if you were good, thru club, rec, or your own hard work, you made the team--not so now.
I do feel like some things have changed dramatically. We had our son in soccer for a few years and saw firsthand how toxic the environment is. It's sooo competitive at a very young age. Our son's little co-ed team had a few very enthusiastic kids on it. They would do great in practice and try hard in matches. But the parents of our competitors' teams were horrible. They made the sport so UNfun for these little 4 and 5 year olds by arguing the rules, shouting at the kids during the match, crowding our team off field during warm ups, etc. It was nuts.
My husband pointed out the other day that the American approach to youth soccer is very messed up. He said, soccer is one of the most popular American youth sports. And it has been that way for many years now. So how come we still don't have excellent American soccer players? We should be smashing the international matches - we have a huge pool or players, tons of resources, and it's popular so what's the problem? It's likely our approach. We pay people who are experts in soccer to coach kids, but few have any training or understanding of child psychology. And their approach to the game sucks the fun out of it. Kids don't enjoy it and burn out by high school. In many other countries the sport is also popular but kids play it with friends uncoached at the park or in the street. It's just for fun! It's not a huge industry until the kids get older and more serious.
Some interesting links about youth sports:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/107/6/1459
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-moment-youth/201201/the-psychology-youth-sports
I had a friend (male) in high school who had been a figure skater as a younger child. He had the most lucrative part time job in my peer group, as a club hired him to practice doubles moves with their female skaters, of which there were more than male skaters. He enjoyed it, knew lots of girls, and had more spending money than anyone else.
Good to know! I hadn't thought of that kind of outcome for my son so it's nice to hear positive stories.
I have 3 kids. The boys are now 18 and 20. Oldest one never liked any sports with a team. We put him in sports till grade 8. Curling, soccer, skating and swimming and biking. Swimming he enjoyed and took up to his life guarding. Biking was only cost of his bike which was great for a May birthday. 18 yr old did most high school sports and did Bantum curling. Swimming to life guarding as well. Worked at the pool 1.5 years and made back every cent we paid on lessons. Price for their sports under 1200 a year. Well......along comes number 3 who begged to try out for competitive gymnastics. Age 9 let her try out. Costs us about $3600 a year including travel. We travel frugally and shop at grocery stores. There isn't the expense of eating out that our hockey friends have. Gymnastics seems to be different. Our daughter is 11. First two yrs was under $2000.00. We also do swim lessons. About $200 a year. As a family we snow shoe. Pretty much free after equipment. (Same snow shoes 7 yrs). We have 6 months winter. I consider it part of the cost of raising kids.
Yes, certain sports like gymnastics can be quite expensive when compared to some other sports like swimming. There are simply fewer options - I know where I live there's essentially only one well-regarded gym although there are lots of smaller places that teach gymnastics this one place is the biggest and best and has the best track record. With swimming however, there are multiple teams here and there are pools everywhere. I feel like track has to be pretty inexpensive too - you can run virtually anywhere and the cost is mostly just shoes.
I have found that figure skating is both expensive and inconvenient. But in some ways it's really great. For instance, it's pretty schedule-able in a way that many other sports aren't. We won't have to compete until he wants to and we don't have to travel to compete until he's very good. And those competitions will probably only be once or twice a year for many years. Most of his training will be scheduled with his coach so it's really just about how much time and money we want to spend - there's no min or max. And his coach does coaching via Skype as well, so that adds flexibility.
I agree that some investment in sport/fitness is just 'part of the cost of raising kids.'
