How important are extracurricular activities??

[gingertoo]

How important do you think it is for a child to have a good range of extra-curricular activities?
Do you think having participated in certain activities benefits them when they come to apply for uni / jobs, maybe making them stand out from applicants who don't?

I ask because our family income has dropped in the last year. Hopefully it will rise again soon, but some of the things that are on our list of things that may have to go, if 'worse comes to worse' are some of the extra-curricular activites that our DCs attend

My primary thoughts for keeping / losing an activity would, of course, be about how much the DCs enjoy the activity but I do wonder whether some of them are actually going to benefit them in the future so would be worth keeping on?

Any thoughts?

I don't think that having a range of activities is that impressive tbh - most jobs/unis will know that children/teens do these things because they are available, or because their parents sign them up, or because their mates go to them. Better to have one activity or interest which they enjoy and can talk about with enthusiasm than several which are just "done" but not loved.

I guess it would be different if the activity was something relevant to the job or course, or things like Duke of Edinburgh scheme which shows they have a lot of committment. But most activities aren't really proof of anything much!

I think the main reason should also be the enjoyment factor. If they are getting social skills and learning something, then even better. School activities tend to be free at my DS' school, so they are not overly affected by family budget. Now my DS is older, we are encouraging him to take part in activities that should benefit him later - ie coaching qualifications,lifesaving etc, that may boost his pocket money.

I think that it would probably be a disadvantage if someone had not done ANY extra-curricular stuff, but you don't need to do loads of things.

Just one or two things that they enjoy, and can talk about in interviews would be fine. There might be a danger that too many activities could set 'pushy parents' alarm bells ringing in the heads of any interviewers .

Can they concentrate on school clubs for a while? I would have thought that being an active participant in school sport/drama/music/whatever, would be just as impressive (and useful and enjoyable) as more expensive external activities.

Regarding university applications. Unless the extra curric directly applies to the course it matters not one jot. DS1 achieved 5 offers from 5 top universities and he has done bugger all except turn up for school and do his work (and most of the time he is late for that).