Sports Your Kids Play

[bagofpucks]

We’ve got a 5 and 7 year old who both played outdoor recreational hockey the past two winters. Despite being a year too young, the younger one would not be denied playing hockey and he seems to quite enjoy it. The older one will be moving to ringette this year.

The younger one is on year 3 of recreational soccer and the older one decided to do recreational gymnastics classes instead of soccer this year; which she has really enjoyed and it’s crazy to see how much core and upper body strength she has developed. Doesn’t hurt that she lives on the monkey bars at school every day.

I feel like we’ve completed the easy portion of the sports journey for now; it sounds like ringette will be quite a bit of travel depending on which team she ends up on. I think we have one more year of outdoor rec hockey before the youngest decides he’d like to play indoor hockey. He also is really leaning into being a goalie, so pray for our financial lives.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by fotze2

$400 a month. Get out of here with your ghetto ass cheap sports.

Try supporting a junior golfer who keeps getting into higher level tournaments.

$400/month is a rounding error.

[malcolmk14]

My oldest is 4 and she does dance, gymnastics, swimming & golf.

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

She can swim 200m in "well under" 2 minutes? That's amazing.

The current womens world record for 200m freestyle is 1 minute 52 seconds, so she's very close especially considering her age.

Oops I’m mixing up her 100 free and 200 free.

1.21 100 free
3.13 200 free

At any rate the swim won’t be an issue. Should be fun to watch.

[scotty2hotty]

My boys are 11 and 10. Could never get them to LOVE any particular sport or extra-curricular.

They found flag football about 2 years and they've stuck with it. Both indoor and outdoor.

They actually WANT to go to games and practice now ... which was a big win for me.

[Underdog]

Originally Posted by scotty2hotty

My boys are 11 and 10. Could never get them to LOVE any particular sport or extra-curricular.



They found flag football about 2 years and they've stuck with it. Both indoor and outdoor.



They actually WANT to go to games and practice now ... which was a big win for me.

Flag football was huge for my 11 year old too. Great that he has a big love of football now that we can bond over. Unfortunately he has started asking about tackle, my wife and my numerous concussions from high school are against it.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by fotze2

$400 a month. Get out of here with your ghetto ass cheap sports.

Thank god!

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

Try supporting a junior golfer who keeps getting into higher level tournaments.

$400/month is a rounding error.

Try sending your kid to Rink Kelowna for a season.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by fotze2

Try sending your kid to Rink Kelowna for a season.

Little twerp better make the NHL.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by fotze2

Try sending your kid to Rink Kelowna for a season.

This is not a contest I want to win, but I have a hard time imagining a sport can be more expensive than junior golf. Tournaments requiring are 3 days plus practice round, so usually about $2-4000, and average about 12 of those a year. Coach is relatively cheap (about $180/month average). Equipment is heavily discounted, but still $1000 per year for replacing wedges and shafts. He's got a great deal on a nice course membership for $250/month. Then there's the unexpected costs of going through 2-3 gloves per week ($200/month), wearing out grips every 3 months ($100/month), wearing out shoes every 2 months ($100/month).

I wouldn't recommend going down this path to anyone who isn't either rich, or willing to make some financial sacrifices. I do enjoy hanging out on golf course a lot more than baseball diamonds and soccer fields though. It is a very stressful sport for a parent.

[indes]

Originally Posted by bagofpucks

We’ve got a 5 and 7 year old who both played outdoor recreational hockey the past two winters. Despite being a year too young, the younger one would not be denied playing hockey and he seems to quite enjoy it. The older one will be moving to ringette this year.

The younger one is on year 3 of recreational soccer and the older one decided to do recreational gymnastics classes instead of soccer this year; which she has really enjoyed and it’s crazy to see how much core and upper body strength she has developed. Doesn’t hurt that she lives on the monkey bars at school every day.

I feel like we’ve completed the easy portion of the sports journey for now; it sounds like ringette will be quite a bit of travel depending on which team she ends up on. I think we have one more year of outdoor rec hockey before the youngest decides he’d like to play indoor hockey. He also is really leaning into being a goalie, so pray for our financial lives.

Since our sports journey has started we've actually discovered community hockey is one of the cheaper sports out there. Dance and gymnastics for my 4yr old daughter are 80$/mo each for 4 times a month. Hockey ends up being 128$/mo but we get 12-16 ice times a month. So the trick is to have a kid that loves it and is good enough where you get to watch some good hockey, but not so good that they play "elite" level.

That being said we know a bunch of people who are paying over 10k a year for their 9 year olds to play on HSL & travel teams.

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

This is not a contest I want to win, but I have a hard time imagining a sport can be more expensive than junior golf. Tournaments requiring are 3 days plus practice round, so usually about $2-4000, and average about 12 of those a year. Coach is relatively cheap (about $180/month average). Equipment is heavily discounted, but still $1000 per year for replacing wedges and shafts. He's got a great deal on a nice course membership for $250/month. Then there's the unexpected costs of going through 2-3 gloves per week ($200/month), wearing out grips every 3 months ($100/month), wearing out shoes every 2 months ($100/month).

I wouldn't recommend going down this path to anyone who isn't either rich, or willing to make some financial sacrifices. I do enjoy hanging out on golf course a lot more than baseball diamonds and soccer fields though. It is a very stressful sport for a parent.

Good god. I thought ski racing at the FIS level was bad. I think I was in it for $20k+ after registration, travel, gear, etc etc. I hear ya on the stress and frustration though. I was a human ATM, sending a kid all over Western Canada only to watch him crash 30 seconds into his first run and get DQ'd for the remainder of the day.

Was also super fun to watch a kid race his entire life, do a year of FIS, and then walk away COMPLETELY from skiing and grab a snowboard. I do however have a sea can full of skis I will never use. Maybe I can recoup cost making shot skis.

[Shazam]

Yeah I think my travel bill for climbing competitions last year was $18K.

[indes]

Jesus. Maybe I should stop with the physical activity and just let my kids play video games all day.

[CliffFletcher]

My kids have done soccer, gymnastics, cheer, karate, and basketball.

By far the worst for cost, hyper-competitive culture, and status-crazed parents was cheer. The best was karate - high marks for fitness, lifelong skills, good culture, and being accessible to average families. As team sports go, community basketball was pretty chill and affordable (no travel), and recommended for good engagement without the ######y culture of elite sports.

[Shazam]

Yeah one of my daughter's friends did competive cheer and it was nuts for cost.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

This is not a contest I want to win, but I have a hard time imagining a sport can be more expensive than junior golf. Tournaments requiring are 3 days plus practice round, so usually about $2-4000, and average about 12 of those a year. Coach is relatively cheap (about $180/month average). Equipment is heavily discounted, but still $1000 per year for replacing wedges and shafts. He's got a great deal on a nice course membership for $250/month. Then there's the unexpected costs of going through 2-3 gloves per week ($200/month), wearing out grips every 3 months ($100/month), wearing out shoes every 2 months ($100/month).

I wouldn't recommend going down this path to anyone who isn't either rich, or willing to make some financial sacrifices. I do enjoy hanging out on golf course a lot more than baseball diamonds and soccer fields though. It is a very stressful sport for a parent.

I can just imagine that if he shanks a shot and you watch him snap a club over his knee while you're having a heart attack...

[Sr. Mints]

Wandering here...One thing my uncle once said about his daughter--and it was a quote that stuck with me for decades... When in a conversation about what a pain in the ass it is to drive kids around to sports, his response was simply it's the best quality time he gets to spend with his daughter one-on-one. She would have been mid to late teens then and was a pretty competitive gymnast/tumbler.

[TimSJ]

Originally Posted by Sr. Mints

Wandering here...One thing my uncle once said about his daughter--and it was a quote that stuck with me for decades... When in a conversation about what a pain in the ass it is to drive kids around to sports, his response was simply it's the best quality time he gets to spend with his daughter one-on-one. She would have been mid to late teens then and was a pretty competitive gymnast/tumbler.

I agree with this 100% driving all over the place and staying in hotels to hockey tournaments with my son and Dance comps with my daughter was just awesome times.

Our daughter started university away this past year and my son got his first car in December and man do I miss it even just the drive home after practice catching up was great.

He's headed away to play Jr hockey this fall, it's going to be strange for my wife and I with an empty nest. Going to have to find some new hobbies.

I will say though the savings of not having to pay for hockey and feed him will likely pay for my daughters year at Queens this year.

[cSpooge]

Originally Posted by Underdog

Flag football was huge for my 11 year old too. Great that he has a big love of football now that we can bond over. Unfortunately he has started asking about tackle, my wife and my numerous concussions from high school are against it.

I will say with all the safe tackling changes and rule changes that have been made to tackle football concussions are significantly down in football. Most of the types of hits that were leading to concussions have been legislated out of the game but they still do happen.