Parents Does anyone else feel the financial pressure?

[bookworm]

Friends of ours have a middle school daughter in hockey. It is also expensive (equipment, etc) but not so many girls in the sport. She was attempting to "recruit" mine to try it out. The chances for a scholarship for talented players is very high. My daughter was like "um no way" and " I love gym" when I approached her about it a few years back. But it is another avenue for shorter statue girls as well.

But the rinks are cold.....

 

[wallinbl]

But the rinks are cold.....

So are gym meets!

 

[notthatmom]

Reading this post is helping me out so much into perspective. I'm so glad my daughter didn't choose figure skating. I was a competitive figure skater and I can tell you it's definitely more expensive.
Skates are $1000 a pair (roughly) and you're lucky to get two years out of them. Coaching is about $60/hour (but skaters usually don't spend nearly as much time with their coach as gymnasts do....let's say 2 hours a week. Then you have ice time which is the time you're on the ice training, either woth a coach or without....approx $200/month. I was also on a synchro team which is a couple hundred dollars per quarter, which doesn't include travel, costume, and warm ups/bag. Then you have costumes for single skating, which unlike comp Leo's, you rarely wear more than once...but they're the same price as most comp leos. Competition fees for both single and synchro get tacked on there too....$60 a $100 per comp per event.

I'm grateful that my parents were able to afford it, I absolutely loved it, and being in a sport like that made me who I am today. I'm happy to shell out the $ for DD's gym, she has a passion for it, and the talent, so I'm willing to make the sacrifices for her.

(Not gonna lie though, I'll never complain if costs go down...fingers crossed)

 

[notthatmom]

Oops double post

 

[Gym Beam]

Reading this post is helping me out so much into perspective. I'm so glad my daughter didn't choose figure skating. I was a competitive figure skater and I can tell you it's definitely more expensive.
Skates are $1000 a pair (roughly) and you're lucky to get two years out of them. Coaching is about $60/hour (but skaters usually don't spend nearly as much time with their coach as gymnasts do....let's say 2 hours a week. Then you have ice time which is the time you're on the ice training, either woth a coach or without....approx $200/month. I was also on a synchro team which is a couple hundred dollars per quarter, which doesn't include travel, costume, and warm ups/bag. Then you have costumes for single skating, which unlike comp Leo's, you rarely wear more than once...but they're the same price as most comp leos. Competition fees for both single and synchro get tacked on there too....$60 a $100 per comp per event.

I'm grateful that my parents were able to afford it, I absolutely loved it, and being in a sport like that made me who I am today. I'm happy to shell out the $ for DD's gym, she has a passion for it, and the talent, so I'm willing to make the sacrifices for her.

(Not gonna lie though, I'll never complain if costs go down...fingers crossed)

There's a girl at DD's gym that does both competitive figure skating and JO gymnastics. Somehow they make it work!

 

[notthatmom]

There's a girl at DD's gym that does both competitive figure skating and JO gymnastics. Somehow they make it work!

How in the hell?? All money aside, how on earth does a kid have the TIME to do both?
My brain can't compute this.

 

[kitkat]

Originally when my dd was in pre-comp I thought this is such a reasonably priced sport - $5.00/hr. One competitive leo every two years, one track suit every three years. A couple of reasonably priced training leos. Competitions locally - never a hotel cost. Cheap cheap.
Now that dd has progressed - gesh - I feel like Al Bundy on Married with Children.
95% of meets are away, two competitive leos every year, track suits for team and club, hotels, air fares, grips more often, a million training leos (my fault), physio, massages, did I say physio and more physio.
But you know what - its all worth it - she loves every minute of it. Its taught her a million life lessons.
So we don't have milk and bread for one week. She can survive without it - RIGHT? ...Just kidding - we adjust as necessary.
My parents did it with me for figure skating and I will do it for dd and gymnastics.

 

[MILgymFAM]

How in the hell?? All money aside, how on earth does a kid have the TIME to do both?
My brain can't compute this.

There is a girl at DDs gym that trains six days a week right now, and still somehow manages to compete archery and triathlons. I literally cannot even figure it out, but the girl but be exhausted all the time.

 

[notthatmom]

There is a girl at DDs gym that trains six days a week right now, and still somehow manages to compete archery and triathlons. I literally cannot even figure it out, but the girl but be exhausted all the time.

Keeps the kid off the streets, that's for sure!

 

[sce]

But the rinks are cold.....

Ah, but they often have snack bars.

 

[Muddlethru]

That's not so much a joke.

If you are counting on athletics to pay for college, better off putting that money away and save it for college.

Gopuckgo's daughter is actually one of those that will likely get a full scholsrship and/or make the national team.

 

[notthatmom]

Ah, but they often have snack bars.

My rink had an ACTUAL bar

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Gopuckgo's daughter is actually one of those that will likely get a full scholsrship and/or make the national team.

Not going to do this again. I was not speaking specifically, about a particular child. And truly, awesome for gopuckgo's daughter.m

There are many thousands of athletes in various sports, very few of them will get a ride. That is a fact. Done.

 

[Muddlethru]

Friends of ours have a middle school daughter in hockey. It is also expensive (equipment, etc) but not so many girls in the sport. She was attempting to "recruit" mine to try it out. The chances for a scholarship for talented players is very high. My daughter was like "um no way" and " I love gym" when I approached her about it a few years back. But it is another avenue for shorter statue girls as well.

There probably also are less rinks or clubs that have hockey or skating teams, at least in our area. There is only one competitive skating rink in maybe a two hour radius in our area. Less rinks to choose from, less teams, less coaches (less teeth, for hockey ) I can see why it is more likely to get a scholarship. My son was a fencer, not top ranked but made nationals and junior olympics (two different things really). Stanford coach walked a letter of support to admissions but said he had given out all scholarships. His first and only visit, which was official, was a month into his senior year. We live in the east coast. Don't know if he would have gotten a scholarship anyway. But we hear fencers (particularly women) have high likelihood of scholarships as well. With three weapons to choose from, there is no limitation as far as height or built.

 

[OzZee]

Because fencing is impossible to find? I'd love to fence!

 

[BachFlyer]

Not going to do this again. I was not speaking specifically, about a particular child. And truly, awesome for gopuckgo's daughter.m

There are many thousands of athletes in various sports, very few of them will get a ride. That is a fact. Done.

Why so snippy? In a thread about financial pressure, I think it's perfectly acceptable to discuss scholarships, and point out that quite a few kids DO in fact go to college for free. Sure, many, many more won't. It sometimes seems like you feel the need to clobber people with the obvious. We get it. Especially those of us who have been around the sport for years.

Anyway... 99% of parents have their kids in the sport simply because they love it. I think that if it turns out that a kid has scholarship potential, there is nothing wrong with holding out hope that it comes through. Especially for parents who have been scraping the bottom of their wallet every month to let them do what they love, knowing all along that it could (or even should) be going to a college fund, we are allowed to dream without judgement.

 

[flowerchild]

Hmm... fencing. Maybe I can get DD to add fencing into her schedule. I think that there is a fencing academy near her gym. I doubt she's going to get an academic scholarship - as lazy as she is about doing her homework! lol! Otherwise, she's looking at community college!

 

[juststartingout]

Every single day.... I started working nights to help pay the costs. I've decided to not have my daughter compete this year. She will train with the team but not compete. Then I have a younger daughter who dances and has just started at gymnastics and is picking up quickly. Right now I pay about 400 for kids activities. The dancer/gymnast also wants to sign up for girl scouts and swimming and I have an older daughter who just entered grad school. If anyone has a seed for a money tree I could use it. I have been trying to get my gymmie to go back to softball with no luck.