Anyone else's kids got extremely expensive hobbies?

[bjorni9]

What started as a casual club, has turned into a lifestyle. Mountain biking, 4x, bmx freestyle, bmx racing. It has saved my ND child's sanity, and drained my bank account. I buy and sell and work so much overtime just so we can continue. It is far better than any play therapy or council funded clubs we've ever received (especially for his mh and mood). Anyone else making big sacrifices for their kids' hobbies? If only football would've stuck!

We get middle rate and it covers my son's activities and a weekend drop off class for his younger sister which gies me 2 hours to attend his class with him as he can't be dropped.

Horseriding lessons that led us to buy a horse when DD was 14. We obviously had to pay everything, but also DH mucked out for months when she went to Uni, before we found someone to look after him in return for riding. We carried on paying even when she was earning....

Lucky for my mom, I didn’t get into bird photography until I was an adult and could pay for my own gear.

Otherwise she may have had to re-mortgage the house 🤣

As it was, she only had to pay for dance classes (and the additional costs for shoes etc that came with that).

You mention if only football had stuck but my kids are so deep into football it costs 💰

Both DC’s play for two different teams one Sat, one Sun. They are also both in a PDC so that’s another session a week. The eldest DC plays games all over the South West so that’s every other Saturday travelling 1-2 hours to a game. One has to have particular boots that of course cost twice as much. They also both have additional skills training and require different boots for that surface. Not to mention all the summer camps and additional training they get invited too.

This is on top of all their other activities such as ice hockey which just to start I had to buy 2nd hand equipment costing over £150.

Such an expensive hobby! 🙈

We have a DS rowing fanatic too.

Good lad 🙌

No. One does tennis, the other does piano. Piano is £16 a week (although we did have to pay for a piano-weighted keyboard.) Not sure what weekly tennis cost but not tons and tons.
But sounds like your boy really needs this, that is great he can do it xx

Also a horsey mum. Never regretted it and they both still ride as adults and keep their own horses at home with mine. As well as teaching them a lot of valuable life lessons, it has given us a shared hobby.

I did put my foot down about competing, though. We simply couldn't afford it so they had to be content with lessons and activities arranged by the yard we were on, which also happened to be a children's riding school. Any complaints and I simply pointed out that having a pony of their own was already an immense privilege as it was. At one stage, between livery costs and riding lessons, I was spending about £600 a month. That was before farrier, vet and miscellaneous costs like tack and clothing. I couldn't afford a regular lesson for myself. We bought everything second hand and there were no holidays, except for trips home to see family. The yard we were on was full of kids and the older ones often gave my girls their stuff when they outgrew it, for which I was very grateful.

But like I said, no regrets. We still don't compete much, we pick a couple of big shows in the summer and head out to them, mostly to socialise (us and the ponies)! Most of what we do with them I would class as 'messing about'. Everyone is happy, though.

Another horsey one, DDs expensive hobby is now mine.
Luckily we bought one that was also suitable for me 😊
No regrets, she’s away in the Royal Navy and I’m left with our pampered expensive lawnmower in exchange for a few hours work/week 😂

You can't get a reliable camper for less than 6 k ,then you have to pay site fees and tax and insure it

My lot! A bunch of fat, hairy natives, who live on good grazing, never get hard feeds and never get sick and rarely injured. They are as tough as nails! My Highland gelding has only cost me two vet bills in 18 years, once when he ripped up a cattle grid with his hoof and the second time when a hoof abscess spread to the cartiledge of his leg.

Our little gypsy cob was a scared, underfed two year old from the RSPCA tht the girls just fell in love with at the re-homing village at Your Horse Live! She cost me £200 to adopt and grew up into a great little all rounder that took them showing, showjumping and doing dressage at local shows and clinics. She still lives with us. Has never once been sick or injured and still turns the sparkle on when the kids brush her off and take her out. She's a little superstar!

Horses for us. It's the equivalent of standing in a field in the rain tearing up fifty pound notes!

Good luck 😊I had multiple competitive figure skaters up to international level. All $$ & time went to that for years. It provided a solid foundation for them that has served them well into adulthood and made a very strong family bond. And we now have much more disposable income!

Absolutely. DH and I had 4 children. Our oldest DD did modeling, choir, clarinet (city and state concert band plus marching band), gifted classes, girl scouts, Kung fu, robotics, acting and Etiquette classes and the debutant ball.

Our oldest DS did, boy scouts, Kung fu, guitar, violin, trumpet, choir, was in a gifted are program from K-12 (that wanted only the best materials), along with acting and attending his art showings and volunteering with autistic children.

Our youngest DD was the most active. She did girl scouts, acting, modeling, Kung fu, violin, trumpet, piano, cheer, mascot, school news reporter, robotics, Honors and AP classes, language lessons to learn German, Spanish, Korean and Latin. She did a Biotechnology internship at local hospital, soccer, photography, fencing, volunteering at the animal shelter, the cat shelter, a local museum and at a local camp for autistic children. Along with being PR person for several of the places she volunteered with.

Our youngest DS... boy scouts, kung fu, drums, honor society, volunteering with Salvation Army and ROTC.

Yes eventing. Feed, vet bills, equipment, insurance, coaching, logistics, entry fees. Costs more than our mortgage.

Mine wants to row because his uncles (my two brothers and my first cousin) are dragon boat racers. They are actually on the Team GB National Dragon Boat racing team. I’m actually proud of them as they have won GB some medals.

My son is 11. We live in London but my brothers live up north. He’s been training with them a few times during school holidays and now he wants to take it up in London😭😭. I don’t do swimming or water sports.

My goodness, do you have time to take a pi$$ between any of these hobbies?

Mine does horse riding and Irish dancing. I did Irish dancing as a child and tried them both when little but they gave it up. One has just rejoined recently. I think she’s too old to get too serious though. Dresses were always expensive when I danced but they’re more now plus all the extras - wigs, tan, make up. I used to stick bendy curlers in my hair and could t wait for the day I would wear black tights over my milk bottle white legs??

DS2 (17) flies glider planes and has recently announced that he wants to get his motor pilot's license. Ouch. Did I mention I'm divorced? Have been trying to get said kid to find a job, but was told he wants flexible flying time, as it is very weather-dependent...🤦‍♀️

Cheerleading and Karting.

As others have said it’s the travel for the competitions which bumps it up. Well, the comps and championships themselves are expensive to enter I guess.

We couldn’t afford to buy and run our own Kart sadly.

Wtf?

Squash. Although switched to golf now and we’ve saved so much money. I know, make it make sense 🤷🏻‍♀️

I keep trying to get my teen to take up hobbies but he’s not interested. Maybe I should think myself lucky!

I've read this a few times and am in awe. I did think robotics was a kind of dance on my first reading, and imagined body popping, but do you mean like engineering / making robots?