AIBU to think this is a lot to spend on extra curricular activities per month?

[Picklesandpies]

Posting here instead of parenting as no replies -

We spend £304 a month on activities for our two DDs aged 10 and 7. This seems like a lot of money to me but I'm curious to know what others spend. This is for;

DD1 - dancing lessons, flute lessons, maths tuition, swimming lessons and Cubs.

DD2 - singing lessons, swimming lessons, guitar lessons, Beavers, rock band club at school.

Does this seem extreme? Dh earns a decent salary but we still have to be reasonably careful with money.

The best value activity mine ever did was Army cadets.

It's a fraction of the cost of Air cadets, God knows why? We pay 50p a week, for that he gets tons of sports training, first aid training, drill, weapons training, a BTECH in public services and heavily subsidised Duke of Edinburgh's award (a tenth of what school wanted for the Silver award!).

The weekends away are £12 and the 2 week annual camp is £60 all inclusive....and they feed them a lot at Army bases! This years camp included horse trekking, coasteering, kayaking, climbing and loads of sports competitions.

Our local brass band is quite good as well! They offer music tuition up to Grade 4 and the free use of an instrument for 50p a week!

You all need to move up North

I'm interested in army cadets for mine but the recent child abuse scandal is heartbreakingly awful and has really put me off

We spend quite a bit of DCs activities. There have been times when I have wondered if it’s all worth it. However now that DD1 is a teenager, I see the enormous benefits of being involved with an activity outside school. It helps keep her fit, improves her mood and it means she is not on her phone 24/7. She also has a great friendship group outside of school through this activity.

I'm interested in army cadets for mine but the recent child abuse scandal is heartbreakingly awful and has really put me off

The cases highlighted in the recent documentary are decades old, and back then they did not have the safeguarding procedures that exist today. It is unfortunate that they chose not to mention this in the programme. Please bear that in mind. Statisically speaking, your child is safer in cadets than in school.