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!

Depemds on the level you compete at - but yes, up to £2.5k on a dress, £150 on hard shoes, £80 light, lessons, travel, competition fees. Irish Dancing can be insanely expensive.

Scuba diving! Don't think it is too bad just yet (not compared to some of these posts) as he's only 11 so limited yet on what he can do but but will only get worse as he gets older and therefore is able to do the more advanced qualifications. When he stops growing he'll need all of his own gear rather than renting from the dive club plus he'll be wanting to go on various international dive trips (he already has a list of destinations in far flung places). I can see the £££s floating away.

Theatre and film acting. However, they both now have an agent and at 14 and 11 years old they are earning more money than I am spending on it. (The money goes straight into their savings, but they will use it for university/driving lessons/house deposits).

Yes Rugby and Football, one pre-professional national level and the other elite level.

Ice Hockey and Roller Hockey x 2 kids.

Horses. They take every bit of time and money you have, plus your heart and soul too. Then quite often the teenager you have mortgaged your life for discovers boys and drinking, loses
interest and you end up still haemorrhaging money for the horse you have now accidentally fallen in love with and can’t bear to sell.

If your child is having riding lessons, no matter how keen they seem now, think long and hard before buying them their own! 🤣

I must admit that part of our cost would be the same whatever the sport...we live on an island so bar the day to day training and say, 2 local regattas, we have to travel a fair distance for everything else, including a ferry. Such is life. We often joke we'd have no idea what to do with ourselves if they ever decided to quit.

It is striking the number of ND children who are mentioned on this thread. By definition, it is going to attract comments from people who can afford to support their children with expensive hobbies, even if it is a bit of a stretch. I am feeling very sad to think of all the kids who miss out because it is just not affordable for so many families. Some of the figures quoted here have shocked me rigid.

It’s amazing you all sacrifice so much time and money and I have a cousin whose parents did it and is now a professional. I think it does explain the reason that very good state schools and private are over represented in professional sport.

Do you think that there are ways that talented youngsters with parents who can’t afford this could thrive in some of the activities, maybe not horses but other where there isn’t initial large outlay like gymnastics - do clubs help with travel for example?

My toddler is 2 and asks for a specific pony to ride. I’m screwed, aren’t I?

I suggested this and my husband laughed at the idea. It’s refreshing to hear somebody else suggest it!

My youngest plays ice hockey, its not too expensive now at 8 years old because the matches aren't further than a couple of hours away and most of his equipment is borrowed from his club but it can get quite expensive when they get older and we have to buy all the kit, matches are further away, insurance and competition licenses are more expensive etc. He also does football and wrestling which each have their own insurances (thinking of just buying a general private sports insurance for him this year rather than buying the sport specific ones) but not so much equipment costs. Circus school and scouts are thankfully quite cheap.

My oldest plays volleyball which last year cost 70e a month plus club fees, license and insurance, plus my time for all the match cafes to raise money for the team. This year if they play in the league all the matches will be pretty far away (because of who the other teams on their level are) so that's bus and driver hire and hotels, which will add up.

Pathetic tbh. All solved with one sentence

No we cant afford it.

Its that simple. No childs activities require a family to go into debt or spend unreasonable time at work. I say that as a parent to a child who missed out on trips around the world representing our country. It was simple, sorry we cant afford it. We did what we could afford and said no to the things we couldnt.

The suits are very very tight, so tight it will take girls 30m plus to get into them. If it takes them less time, then the suit is too big. You have to inch the material up very very slowly else you can't get into them at all. To the point that you may need another person to get the shoulder straps up. This compression really helps with dropping times, which is why they all wear them.

But - the tightness needed for this drops off after the material gets stretched out after a few wears and you don't get that same compression, and potentially not the PBs, hence new suit.

And the fingernails, as you inch the suit up your legs / hips, any form of sharp nail goes straight through the suit as the material is so thin, and once ripped although it can be repaired, it depends where on the suit, how big the rip is etc etc. Some of the kids wear gloves so they can't put a nail through, others don't and rip a suit on it's first wear 🤬....

I can answer that one.

Race suits create compression, are incredibly tight and can take a long time to put on - you have to ease them on and be careful to pull only on the seams. It’s easy to snag a fingernail in the material and then it’s game over.

The early compression suits only lasted a few swims because the pool chlorine would wreck them, but more recent ones are better. Some brands used to come with gloves to avoid the fingernail problem.

Not anymore 🎊!

My daughter did county swimming and dance. My pocket smiled when she stopped swimming!
She stopped dancing end of last school year and my pocket is even more relieved.

Both of those activities were outside school, and cost so much in time and money 😟.

Equestrian sports, I won’t consider having another child because we couldn’t afford to do it twice!

To be fair I also have horses so I was prepared for a horse mad DC.

I feel this - DS does 5 classes a week plus an associates class, and this summer did his first residential intensive. He loves it more than anything else in the world and I would never take it away from him - but my God it's crippling. I have avoided even researching private lessons!!

Ice skating and skiing 🙈

I remember my mate did motorbikes, like dirt bike racing? Idk the actual name but it looked really fun. His foster family paid for him to go all the time. When he moved back in with his dad he had to quit. As his dad spent all his money on drugs and beer. 😕
He still had a life long love of bikes and works in a bike shop now!

Thanks @throwa and @SabrinaThwaite

I am so numb, I thought someone came along with a hammer and a nail! 😂

Parents doing all they can to give their children the opportunity to pursue their passions is pathetic? If my kids put in the time, dedication and effort to get to an elite level at anything then I'm going to move hell and high water to find ways to pay for it. I don't think that's pathetic.

Also, there’s no rule that requires a dry race suit for each race - it’s more that sitting around in a wet suit means that it will stretch and lose its compression, and the material and seams degrade. So generally you’d change out of your race suit as soon as you can and rinse and dry it.

Our daughter had a horse for 7 years, soo expensive. Thankfully when she started working we had to sell her the horse due to lack of time. Towards the end of keeping her I had a 4k vets bill to pay, crazy times, 🤪

My DC has an aptitude for dancing. They are currently in a lovely cheap school that is very mindful of cost when it comes to show costumes etc.
I am hesitating to transfer them to a more technically demanding school where they'd improve no doubt but yes, the cost...