Bob

Little Bobette was interested in doing cheerleading...she's not as it's $170 a term, plus gear, at least there isn't much gear...but it's mostly down to a friends older daughter doing it and it being 6-9pm training, 5 days a week and then games and competition in the weekends.

Another friend, their first grader does deck hockey and trains twice a week for an hour and then has a game, his older brother is third grade and did American football and during the summer and school holidays, trains 2 hours, 5 days a week and during school, it's 3 days a week, plus games over the weekend.

Another friend of Bobette, older brothers, about third grade and junior high, does ice hockey and that's 1 hour of training at 6:30am 3 days a week and 2 hours in the evening 2 days a week for games over the weekend and the youngest is just in state but all over, the oldest, well they're all over the state, VT, CT and upstate NY...if they get into the finals of some of these competitions, they're in Toronto as well.

Any one else have kids that do crazy school sports? When do the kids have time to do any homework? When do you parents have time to get the kids around to these events....and afford to in the case of some of them, especially hockey, when you're paying for ice time, coach time, gear and then games all on top of the initial cost

Bink

My kids aren't old enough yet but my wife did cheerleading and gymnastics and says it completely consumed her childhood. It's all she was able to do. I was chatting to my inlaws about this a few weeks back and they said they were chauffeurs to Mrs Bink and never got to even eat at home because it would be school then hours of practice then home for 9.30ish. Crazy.

For me growing up playing footy in the UK it was training twice a week for about an hour and then a game on a Sunday.

notonuksoil

My youngest (12 yrs old) swims, plays rec soccer and basketball.

Swimming is her main sport and she has made the varsity team as a middle school-er, shes quite good!

Some of the kids she swims with practice 5 x 2hr sessions a week after school and one girl also does an extra 2 sessions before school getting up at 5am - to me its way way too much for a 12/13yr old kid. They have been doing this since before they could walk I think. My daughter only started swimming 3 yrs ago and has reached the same standard as the obsessive swimmers by doing a lot less swimming but playing multiple sports at a rec level (not an intensive level).

My daughter swims an hour and a half 3 days a week, plus maybe one swim meet a week for the school for 5 weeks between sept-oct. Basketball starts in Nov one 1hr practice a week game on Saturday. Soccer is Saturday 1hr practice game on a Sunday.

markonline1

My 5 year old step daughter now plays soccer 3 times a week. I have to stand on the sidelines biting my tongue at the standard of coaching, and I try not to be the dad on the sidelines barking out orders during the games LOL. I do however now know exactly what a soccer mom is ha ha.

ann m

I think we spend about $6k a year on dance for two teenage girls. I'll say that really quickly! They both now do at least five classes a week - but its the competitions and costumes that cripple me. The "season" runs from September to May.

I don't think that intensity of sports is always good for their growing bodies and hips and knee joints - but boy, are they fit!

Sally Redux

Other parents told me they put their kids into these intensive programs to try to stop them thinking about sex. That seems to be a bigger preoccupation in the US.

Pom_Chch

It seems kids here in NZ can do a little too much sports wise. I work as a first aider at soccer matches, some of which with kids around the age of 13. Some of these kids are constantly coming to me with sore muscles and overuse injuries. One lad kept coming back to me with sore and tight calf muscles, which can be typical of over training and doing too much. When I asked him what he had been doing activity-wise in the lead up to the game it was something along the lines of soccer training Mon, Weds and Fri for two hours each time plus a soccer match on Saturday and hockey try-outs of Sunday with practice on Tues and Thurs Far too much for a kid of that age. Their bodies need rest and recuperation, especially when growing. I think people assume that kids can cope with lots of activity, but this is not the case and usually results in $$$ being chucked at physio's to help deal with under stressed joints and soft tissues.

AmerLisa

We've done odds and ends sports over the years with our daughter, mostly through the Y and the cost and time involved were minimal. She has done dance which was more expensive, but something she didn't continue.

Last year she signed up at school to play soccer and decided she really enjoyed that. So we signed her up to a rec league and that's been the best bargain. For $150 she (and her team) started practice mid-July and started games the beginning of September (every Saturday) They practice two evenings a week, 5:30 to 7. This will last till the beginning of December. It's a great way for her to get exercise outside and to socialize as well, she's 13.

We have friends that have their two daughters very active, ridiculously so in my opinion. Their older daughter (17 and a senior) has been doing either dance or competitive sports since we have known them (10 years) and before. The older girl has done competitive fastpitch for the last few years and while she's good, I can't even imagine the money they have thrown out on that! I know to be in the league cost a few thousand and that doesn't include all the travel they do for tournaments (they were in California for a week during the summer, they were also in Canada!) She also plays sports through her high school, certainly a lot less expensive, but obviously not in depth enough for her...

Anyway, I guess if you've got the money and want to have your children very involved, you certainly can.

Yorkieabroad

My 13 year old goes to the gym 3 times a week for a 45 minute "boot camp" style work out aimed at 12-15 year olds. The coaches are all cool dudes, totally ripped, and they play "teenager" music while they workout. He loves it - wife suggested he try going to some of the classes at the Y instead, and faced instant mutiny! He rides with me weekly during the training for the MS150 (Jan - Apr) working distances up to around 50-60 miles. He used to swim, but stopped last year, although he says he wants to get back into it next year when he joins high school. He'll never make the olympics, which is what a lot of the parents seem to want for their kids (or at least a college team to get the scholarship!), but he enjoys it and gets a good workout. He also does 3-4 triathlons a year, but on a fun basis - no real specific training, just turn up and go. Gym is $70/month, swim was c.150/month, riding was expensive set up, but is now free most of the time, though we pay 100 to join the 3 month training series in the spring.

Middle one (11yo) plays soccer - 2 x 2 hour training a week, plus a league game on Saturday. There are pick up games on sundays that sometimes he goes to, sometimes not, depending on the mood. He has tried basketball, baseball, football, but always keeps coming back to soccer. He's pretty reasonable, and went to one of the "select" teams for half a year, but it was a total rip off, he hated it, and "dropped back" into the rec league. His coach also runs a tournament team that son was on for one season, but he didn't like the intensity (4-5 games in a weekend) and asked to come back to just the league team. He does summer swim league, which he generally does well in, but has no interest in year round swimming. I think the summer thing is more social than anything else..
Soccer is $120/season, plus a ball and a pair of boots.

Youngest (9) dropped soccer a couple of years ago. She has danced since she was 3, and 2 years ago got into the "company" which suddenly increased the commitment somewhat! She is tall, and dances with the next company up, rather than her age group, which means she now dances 9 hours a week, outside competitions and conventions. During "choreography week" which seems to last 3 weeks, that may increase by 4 or 5 hours as she learns her new routines. In her spare time will drag out a tap board I made for her at home, or get on the barre for some stretching. She was one of 10 girls in her company selected to dance with the Radio City Rockettes when they come to Houston for the Christmas series, which she was pretty excited about. Total annual cost including costumes and everything was a little over 3 grand last year

Put all those together, add in a late working wife, and limited carpool this year (was better last) and I seem to spend a huge amount of my "after school" time ferrying them around, although this year we do have dinner together, at our own table, every night. Last year we didn't manage that on Thursdays...

N1cky

12 year old daughter has been on the competitive rock climbing team at her gym for just over a year. She trains Mon, Wed, Thu, I drop her straight from school and pick her up at 7pm, they have at least one intensive 'power' workout in that time, which consists of 100's of pull-ups, push-ups, burpees, front levers... They'll also sometimes do time on the treadmill, elliptical, and rowing machines. Cost of that is $220 per month, but does include membership to the gym, so she can go climb when and as often as she wants.

Her coach often arranges outdoor climbing days, and in the run up to knockout competitions they train at various different gyms in the run up, so at least 8 hours on a weekend. In the summer she did 5 days straight in SF, where workout consisted of warming up by running both ways across Golden Gate Bridge If there's no event on a weekend, she'll take herself down the gym for a few hours.

There are 3 distinct competitions, the serious ones which go to National level are October-February, March-July, and then there is a more relaxed No-Cal one in January-March. These all cost extra, plus the travel and hotels needed. If she makes Nationals that's in Wisconsin in February, with the July Nationals always taking place in Atlanta. Top 4 in each category win a place on the National team, then get to compete in the likes of Asia/Europe... One of the girls on the team competed at Worlds in New Caledonia a couple of weeks ago, and then a few others we know will compete in Mexico over Thanksgiving.

The good thing is, it is a lot of fun. The kids make fantastic friends, even from other teams. And wow! those kids are strong.

I often thought some kids were pushed into these sports too hard, it wasn't until my own became obsessed with her sport that I realized that the kids are driving a lot of it. Her whole life has changed because it's what she wants to do. Homework is now super organized and completed in a third of the time, and she's switched crappy school lunches for salads that she makes herself every day...

Yorkieabroad

I used to think the same till my 9yo got into dance. We are trying to put the brakes on a bit, and she is push push push. I dont mind that much as it is good exercise, she is in with a great group of girls (and the moms aren't "dance-moms"!) and she loves it. And as you say, she has to be super-organized to fit it all in.

A few years ago I did a Cub Scout day camp that included a volleyball section, and I got talking to a lady watching who turned out to be one of the local HS Volleyball coaches. She reckoned that at a young age it was so important for the kids to try lots of different sports (along the lines someone else mentioned earlier) and she didn't care what they played, as long as they played something. She said some of her biggest challenges were kids that got to HS having played volleyball since they were knee-high, because Mom wanted them to. She reckoned she lost a lot of would-be good players, because they were so bored and burnt out with just playing volleyball, and once they got to HS they actually had the opportunity to try something else, outside the parental shadow!

Bob

That was my experience too, for pretty much every sport...and none of it involved the gym or a big diet regime

Though that would be a bit extreme for my little one, she's only in first grade

Jerseygirl

When my daughter was as school...parents seemed to choose the activity for their kids that would most likely get them into a good uni. Most of them were continually taking videos of little Mary's/John's performance.

Clrsth

My son is in 8th grade and has just started playing field hockey, even though its a girls sport here. He trains for 2 hours a night after school and has matches at least twice a week. He is also in the local soccer league and they train 3 times a week for an hour and a half and then have matches on Saturday. Right now spending a huge amount of my time ferrying him around! On top of that he has about 2 hours of homework a night. Back in Scotland field hockey training was once a week after school and matches after school and soccer was one night a week, training on Sunday.

Clare

Rickyk

My boys train 10-15 hours a week during school time. 30 hours a week when out of school. I like it as it gives them goals and keeps them focused. They attend a sports school so have to do 400 hours of training in order to graduate. As for the cost, I don't add it up as I would have to think about it if I did!