How can a kid be so good at so many activities with a limited amount of time?

[Anonymous]

I think the kid was in the love zone

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Check out Caitlyn clark competing and learning competitive golf if her off season.

Pump the break. Caitlyn would lose BIG to a D1 University of Virginia golfer.

No ones comparing a uva golfer chick one- trick pony who’s has practices and trained 10+ hours a week since age 8.

The topic was a very athletic young adult learning golf in her off season and that trajectory and accelerated learning curve.
Why is it accelerated? Because clark is disciplined, coachable, excellent hand/eye/body coordination, excellent situational awareness, in too muscular and cardiovascular shape.

Personally we like Scootie Sheffler, who’s also a highly gifted athlete who specialized in golf while playing varsity basketball at a huge competitive texas high school too. He’s good at every sport he touches. Being 6’4” and strong helps as well but very gifted athlete.
Read the Wash Post article on him for earlier this year. They interviewed all his sports and teammates and coaches since he was a kid. Very impressive.

And his parents did right: found the best personal coach, put in the time, trusted the process, provided all the travel tourney money and logistics, pushed him and he pushed himself.
Oh, and he had time to play pick up hoops!! And marry his HS sweetheart. And get good grades like Clark! Omg when did they pet the doggie?

But he doesn’t also play multiple musical instruments, and his parents didn’t schedule literally every single waking second for him, which is what the dog thing was in response to. Way to miss the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The majority of Americans cannot afford (and do not have the time) to enroll their kids in four sports and two instruments year round. Even if we assume the story has some exaggeration and that this kid was not actually being shuttled daily from swim to soccer to tennis to golf and then still fitting in a piano practice at home before completing several hours of homework, that many activities done a level of high competency is not achievable even for a disciplined and self-motivated MC kid. It simply requires too much time and money.

I'm guessing this kid is either from a very wealthy family or from a highly resourced family and is an only child (so like maybe his parents are UMC but he's the only grandchild and his grandparents are well off and not only helped pay for all his activities but also supported them by helping with travel and encouragement and attending meets and recitals and all of it.

But no your average MC or UMC family can't do that. You're talking about, from the age of 6 or so, having your kid in swim 2-3 days a week, soccer at least twice a week, piano once a week plus daily practice, guitar once a week plus daily practice, tennis at least 2 days a week, and golf at least 2 days a week. Even for a kid who is a natural athlete and musician that is an insane schedule. It would basically be a full time job just to manage his activity schedule and get him to and from everything plus making sure he always has the right gear for everything. So you've either got a parent or a grandparent who can make that their full time job (even if you have a SAHP it means they are outsourcing a lot of the other SAHP stuff -- cleaning and meal planning and vacation planning etc. -- to optimize their kid's extra-curriculars, and that's going to cost $$$) or you are essentially hiring a personal assistant for your elementary grade kid to handle this.

If you are just a standard MC family, this kid does two sports and one instrument and then adds some additional stuff in high school (as strong athlete can add something like track or wrestling, a great musician can easily add guitar to piano in MS or HS) but they aren't doing all 6 activities year round through their entire childhood and adolescence. And several of those activities require an early start and regular practice and coaching (tennis and golf in particular -- teams in these sports are small and you are very unlikely to make them without private coaching even if you are a natural talent simply because there will be other kids who are naturally talented AND who get the private coaching) so they aren't just picking those up later and then getting to a high level of proficiency.

I am UMC and have a kid who is a competitive swimmer and tennis player and who also does ballet and piano. It absolutely requires money and a lot of resources. We couldn't afford it if we had more than one kid, for instance.

Ofcourse it is possible for a MC family because ​my wife and I are two GS-15 government workers with three kids. All of them play golf, tennis, soccer, and practice guitar & saxophone year round, with private lessons.

Your HHI must be around 300K. You’re not middle class (you’re upper middle class).

NP. There are so many colleges here and athletes there who will do private lessons. For less than $100 a half hour.

But that takes parental effort to talk and call around.

And? Poster I replied to continues to not be middle class.

You think hiring a kid to play catch or shoot hoops with your kids is more parental effort than doing it yourself, btw?

No one here (except you) said it was more effort, they said it takes effort. I agree.
It takes effort to find good coaches, lessons, and do the scheduling. It does not take zero effort.

No one here (except you) said they make $300k. You made that up.
Two GS 15 is middle class in Washington DC. Plus they were probably gS13 and 14 for many years whilst raising their children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some humans are just really impressive.

My kids go to a top private (not in DC) and there are a few there who are just insanely impressive. They are national merit semifinalists, have perfect SAT scores (1600) took calculus in 9th grade, run a 4 minute mile and are team captains for another sport. Plus they're artistic, kind, funny, good looking and completely solid on a mental health level.

It's not my kids (at all) but they exist.

You can do anything if you lie enough.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_high_school_students_who_have_run_a_four-minute_mile

calculus in 9th grade is also suspicious.

I alumni interview at Blair. It’s not common but not unheard of, certain cultures tutor and study ahead in math and science. Or just accelerate or demand it from the schools. The kids themselves do to.

What does this mean?

Same thing as bean pot. It means you outta it PP

If you have to ask…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Check out Caitlyn clark competing and learning competitive golf if her off season.

Pump the break. Caitlyn would lose BIG to a D1 University of Virginia golfer.

No ones comparing a uva golfer chick one- trick pony who’s has practices and trained 10+ hours a week since age 8.

The topic was a very athletic young adult learning golf in her off season and that trajectory and accelerated learning curve.
Why is it accelerated? Because clark is disciplined, coachable, excellent hand/eye/body coordination, excellent situational awareness, in too muscular and cardiovascular shape.

Personally we like Scootie Sheffler, who’s also a highly gifted athlete who specialized in golf while playing varsity basketball at a huge competitive texas high school too. He’s good at every sport he touches. Being 6’4” and strong helps as well but very gifted athlete.
Read the Wash Post article on him for earlier this year. They interviewed all his sports and teammates and coaches since he was a kid. Very impressive.

And his parents did right: found the best personal coach, put in the time, trusted the process, provided all the travel tourney money and logistics, pushed him and he pushed himself.
Oh, and he had time to play pick up hoops!! And marry his HS sweetheart. And get good grades like Clark! Omg when did they pet the doggie?

But he doesn’t also play multiple musical instruments, and his parents didn’t schedule literally every single waking second for him, which is what the dog thing was in response to. Way to miss the point.

Man you dense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A 22-year-old recently grad started his job yesterday in accounting/finance, and he reports directly to me. We had lunch and a long conversation while he was waiting for access to the system. According to this young man, his childhood was always busy with activities. His parents made him practice piano, guitar, swimming, soccer, golf, and tennis everyday. He was also a very good student on top of those activities. He even showed me some of those activities that his parents captured on YouTube, and he looked excellent. He ended up at a very good college, and played sport there. His social life also improved because of the activities that he acquired in his teen years. I came away very impressed by this young man, and I would not be surprised that he will be my boss a few years from now.

All of this brings up my question: How can someone be so good at so many activities with a limited amount of time?

Sounds like a good hire. Put them to work!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The majority of Americans cannot afford (and do not have the time) to enroll their kids in four sports and two instruments year round. Even if we assume the story has some exaggeration and that this kid was not actually being shuttled daily from swim to soccer to tennis to golf and then still fitting in a piano practice at home before completing several hours of homework, that many activities done a level of high competency is not achievable even for a disciplined and self-motivated MC kid. It simply requires too much time and money.

I'm guessing this kid is either from a very wealthy family or from a highly resourced family and is an only child (so like maybe his parents are UMC but he's the only grandchild and his grandparents are well off and not only helped pay for all his activities but also supported them by helping with travel and encouragement and attending meets and recitals and all of it.

But no your average MC or UMC family can't do that. You're talking about, from the age of 6 or so, having your kid in swim 2-3 days a week, soccer at least twice a week, piano once a week plus daily practice, guitar once a week plus daily practice, tennis at least 2 days a week, and golf at least 2 days a week. Even for a kid who is a natural athlete and musician that is an insane schedule. It would basically be a full time job just to manage his activity schedule and get him to and from everything plus making sure he always has the right gear for everything. So you've either got a parent or a grandparent who can make that their full time job (even if you have a SAHP it means they are outsourcing a lot of the other SAHP stuff -- cleaning and meal planning and vacation planning etc. -- to optimize their kid's extra-curriculars, and that's going to cost $$$) or you are essentially hiring a personal assistant for your elementary grade kid to handle this.

If you are just a standard MC family, this kid does two sports and one instrument and then adds some additional stuff in high school (as strong athlete can add something like track or wrestling, a great musician can easily add guitar to piano in MS or HS) but they aren't doing all 6 activities year round through their entire childhood and adolescence. And several of those activities require an early start and regular practice and coaching (tennis and golf in particular -- teams in these sports are small and you are very unlikely to make them without private coaching even if you are a natural talent simply because there will be other kids who are naturally talented AND who get the private coaching) so they aren't just picking those up later and then getting to a high level of proficiency.

I am UMC and have a kid who is a competitive swimmer and tennis player and who also does ballet and piano. It absolutely requires money and a lot of resources. We couldn't afford it if we had more than one kid, for instance.

Ofcourse it is possible for a MC family because ​my wife and I are two GS-15 government workers with three kids. All of them play golf, tennis, soccer, and practice guitar & saxophone year round, with private lessons.

Your HHI must be around 300K. You’re not middle class (you’re upper middle class).

NP. There are so many colleges here and athletes there who will do private lessons. For less than $100 a half hour.

But that takes parental effort to talk and call around.

And? Poster I replied to continues to not be middle class.

You think hiring a kid to play catch or shoot hoops with your kids is more parental effort than doing it yourself, btw?

DP. We never played lacrosse, so hiring a college kid to get our kid started with a decent form made perfect sense. We play catch with them, too, but they correct us!

And that’s all well and good. I get that it makes sense when you don’t know what you’re doing. But is it really more *effort* to pay money to someone else to play with your kid?

(Obviously I am taking issue with the doofus I responded to before you, not anyone who gets coaching for their kids!)

Another DP. I've had to call around to find a pitching coach for my kid (because softball pitching is incredibly complicated and there are major differences between schools of thought so we can't just learn it via YouTube) and to find music teachers. I really, really tried to find high school or college athletes or musicians to do it, because professionals are pretty expensive in all cases. It was HARD. In the case of the pitching coach, I stumbled accidentally on someone who pointed me to the motherload of student-athletes. In the case of music teachers, I never was able to find someone despite months of searching and asking around. Mentally it was more exhausting than all the time I spend catching for my pitcher while she's practicing, though it took less time to actually get the lists and make the calls. Even finding the professional teachers we ended up using for music was a lot of work. And no, I can't teach my kids to play their instruments because I don't play myself. My role in that is just making sure they practice an adequate amount.

Maybe I'm atypical (or a doofus), but I can see where PP is coming from.

Oh okay. So you agree with the doofus that MC (ahem actual middle class, not dcum middle class) parents who don’t have their kids in private coaching and private music lessons are just lazy. Got it.

(FTR, it’s not remotely difficult to find coaches or music teachers. I think you were doing something wrong.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A 22-year-old recently grad started his job yesterday in accounting/finance, and he reports directly to me. We had lunch and a long conversation while he was waiting for access to the system. According to this young man, his childhood was always busy with activities. His parents made him practice piano, guitar, swimming, soccer, golf, and tennis everyday. He was also a very good student on top of those activities. He even showed me some of those activities that his parents captured on YouTube, and he looked excellent. He ended up at a very good college, and played sport there. His social life also improved because of the activities that he acquired in his teen years. I came away very impressed by this young man, and I would not be surprised that he will be my boss a few years from now.

All of this brings up my question: How can someone be so good at so many activities with a limited amount of time?

Sorry Op but this sounds hyperbolic unless the kid was homeschooled.

Kids are in school nearly 7-8 hours per day. So swimming, soccer golf practice every single day seems impossible. More likely, a kid can practice those sports individually 2-3x/week. Piano/guitar daily + 1 morning sport workout and 1 after school sport workout is not as much of a stretch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some humans are just really impressive.

My kids go to a top private (not in DC) and there are a few there who are just insanely impressive. They are national merit semifinalists, have perfect SAT scores (1600) took calculus in 9th grade, run a 4 minute mile and are team captains for another sport. Plus they're artistic, kind, funny, good looking and completely solid on a mental health level.

It's not my kids (at all) but they exist.

You can do anything if you lie enough.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_high_school_students_who_have_run_a_four-minute_mile

calculus in 9th grade is also suspicious.

I alumni interview at Blair. It’s not common but not unheard of, certain cultures tutor and study ahead in math and science. Or just accelerate or demand it from the schools. The kids themselves do to.

What does this mean?

Same thing as bean pot. It means you outta it PP

If you have to ask…

Do you know what it means? To my knowledge there is interviewing to get into SMCS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The majority of Americans cannot afford (and do not have the time) to enroll their kids in four sports and two instruments year round. Even if we assume the story has some exaggeration and that this kid was not actually being shuttled daily from swim to soccer to tennis to golf and then still fitting in a piano practice at home before completing several hours of homework, that many activities done a level of high competency is not achievable even for a disciplined and self-motivated MC kid. It simply requires too much time and money.

I'm guessing this kid is either from a very wealthy family or from a highly resourced family and is an only child (so like maybe his parents are UMC but he's the only grandchild and his grandparents are well off and not only helped pay for all his activities but also supported them by helping with travel and encouragement and attending meets and recitals and all of it.

But no your average MC or UMC family can't do that. You're talking about, from the age of 6 or so, having your kid in swim 2-3 days a week, soccer at least twice a week, piano once a week plus daily practice, guitar once a week plus daily practice, tennis at least 2 days a week, and golf at least 2 days a week. Even for a kid who is a natural athlete and musician that is an insane schedule. It would basically be a full time job just to manage his activity schedule and get him to and from everything plus making sure he always has the right gear for everything. So you've either got a parent or a grandparent who can make that their full time job (even if you have a SAHP it means they are outsourcing a lot of the other SAHP stuff -- cleaning and meal planning and vacation planning etc. -- to optimize their kid's extra-curriculars, and that's going to cost $$$) or you are essentially hiring a personal assistant for your elementary grade kid to handle this.

If you are just a standard MC family, this kid does two sports and one instrument and then adds some additional stuff in high school (as strong athlete can add something like track or wrestling, a great musician can easily add guitar to piano in MS or HS) but they aren't doing all 6 activities year round through their entire childhood and adolescence. And several of those activities require an early start and regular practice and coaching (tennis and golf in particular -- teams in these sports are small and you are very unlikely to make them without private coaching even if you are a natural talent simply because there will be other kids who are naturally talented AND who get the private coaching) so they aren't just picking those up later and then getting to a high level of proficiency.

I am UMC and have a kid who is a competitive swimmer and tennis player and who also does ballet and piano. It absolutely requires money and a lot of resources. We couldn't afford it if we had more than one kid, for instance.

Ofcourse it is possible for a MC family because ​my wife and I are two GS-15 government workers with three kids. All of them play golf, tennis, soccer, and practice guitar & saxophone year round, with private lessons.

Your HHI must be around 300K. You’re not middle class (you’re upper middle class).

NP. There are so many colleges here and athletes there who will do private lessons. For less than $100 a half hour.

But that takes parental effort to talk and call around.

And? Poster I replied to continues to not be middle class.

You think hiring a kid to play catch or shoot hoops with your kids is more parental effort than doing it yourself, btw?

No one here (except you) said it was more effort, they said it takes effort. I agree.
It takes effort to find good coaches, lessons, and do the scheduling. It does not take zero effort.

No one here (except you) said they make $300k. You made that up.
Two GS 15 is middle class in Washington DC. Plus they were probably gS13 and 14 for many years whilst raising their children.

Just stop. You’re embarrassing yourself.

“But that takes parental effort to talk and call around”

This was clearly a dig. You’re not fooling anybody. “Less than $100 for half an hour” is not some amazing deal for actual middle class families. It’s still unaffordable.

Two GS-15’s (as the poster said they were) make a minimum of $163k EACH for a household income of over $300k. What part did I make up, exactly? The median HHI for the DC metro area is about $120K. So I repeat, the dual GS-15 poster is NOT middle class (not even in DC). Although I’m sure they feel like they’re just scraping by after they spend all their money on… let me check my notes here…

“three kids. All of them play golf, tennis, soccer, and practice guitar & saxophone year round, with private lessons. ”

[Anonymous]

This sounds crazy! Do these kids get to ever be kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The majority of Americans cannot afford (and do not have the time) to enroll their kids in four sports and two instruments year round. Even if we assume the story has some exaggeration and that this kid was not actually being shuttled daily from swim to soccer to tennis to golf and then still fitting in a piano practice at home before completing several hours of homework, that many activities done a level of high competency is not achievable even for a disciplined and self-motivated MC kid. It simply requires too much time and money.

I'm guessing this kid is either from a very wealthy family or from a highly resourced family and is an only child (so like maybe his parents are UMC but he's the only grandchild and his grandparents are well off and not only helped pay for all his activities but also supported them by helping with travel and encouragement and attending meets and recitals and all of it.

But no your average MC or UMC family can't do that. You're talking about, from the age of 6 or so, having your kid in swim 2-3 days a week, soccer at least twice a week, piano once a week plus daily practice, guitar once a week plus daily practice, tennis at least 2 days a week, and golf at least 2 days a week. Even for a kid who is a natural athlete and musician that is an insane schedule. It would basically be a full time job just to manage his activity schedule and get him to and from everything plus making sure he always has the right gear for everything. So you've either got a parent or a grandparent who can make that their full time job (even if you have a SAHP it means they are outsourcing a lot of the other SAHP stuff -- cleaning and meal planning and vacation planning etc. -- to optimize their kid's extra-curriculars, and that's going to cost $$$) or you are essentially hiring a personal assistant for your elementary grade kid to handle this.

If you are just a standard MC family, this kid does two sports and one instrument and then adds some additional stuff in high school (as strong athlete can add something like track or wrestling, a great musician can easily add guitar to piano in MS or HS) but they aren't doing all 6 activities year round through their entire childhood and adolescence. And several of those activities require an early start and regular practice and coaching (tennis and golf in particular -- teams in these sports are small and you are very unlikely to make them without private coaching even if you are a natural talent simply because there will be other kids who are naturally talented AND who get the private coaching) so they aren't just picking those up later and then getting to a high level of proficiency.

I am UMC and have a kid who is a competitive swimmer and tennis player and who also does ballet and piano. It absolutely requires money and a lot of resources. We couldn't afford it if we had more than one kid, for instance.

Ofcourse it is possible for a MC family because ​my wife and I are two GS-15 government workers with three kids. All of them play golf, tennis, soccer, and practice guitar & saxophone year round, with private lessons.

Your HHI must be around 300K. You’re not middle class (you’re upper middle class).

NP. There are so many colleges here and athletes there who will do private lessons. For less than $100 a half hour.

But that takes parental effort to talk and call around.

And? Poster I replied to continues to not be middle class.

You think hiring a kid to play catch or shoot hoops with your kids is more parental effort than doing it yourself, btw?

DP. We never played lacrosse, so hiring a college kid to get our kid started with a decent form made perfect sense. We play catch with them, too, but they correct us!

And that’s all well and good. I get that it makes sense when you don’t know what you’re doing. But is it really more *effort* to pay money to someone else to play with your kid?

(Obviously I am taking issue with the doofus I responded to before you, not anyone who gets coaching for their kids!)

Another DP. I've had to call around to find a pitching coach for my kid (because softball pitching is incredibly complicated and there are major differences between schools of thought so we can't just learn it via YouTube) and to find music teachers. I really, really tried to find high school or college athletes or musicians to do it, because professionals are pretty expensive in all cases. It was HARD. In the case of the pitching coach, I stumbled accidentally on someone who pointed me to the motherload of student-athletes. In the case of music teachers, I never was able to find someone despite months of searching and asking around. Mentally it was more exhausting than all the time I spend catching for my pitcher while she's practicing, though it took less time to actually get the lists and make the calls. Even finding the professional teachers we ended up using for music was a lot of work. And no, I can't teach my kids to play their instruments because I don't play myself. My role in that is just making sure they practice an adequate amount.

Maybe I'm atypical (or a doofus), but I can see where PP is coming from.

Oh okay. So you agree with the doofus that MC (ahem actual middle class, not dcum middle class) parents who don’t have their kids in private coaching and private music lessons are just lazy. Got it.

(FTR, it’s not remotely difficult to find coaches or music teachers. I think you were doing something wrong.)

Troll

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The majority of Americans cannot afford (and do not have the time) to enroll their kids in four sports and two instruments year round. Even if we assume the story has some exaggeration and that this kid was not actually being shuttled daily from swim to soccer to tennis to golf and then still fitting in a piano practice at home before completing several hours of homework, that many activities done a level of high competency is not achievable even for a disciplined and self-motivated MC kid. It simply requires too much time and money.

I'm guessing this kid is either from a very wealthy family or from a highly resourced family and is an only child (so like maybe his parents are UMC but he's the only grandchild and his grandparents are well off and not only helped pay for all his activities but also supported them by helping with travel and encouragement and attending meets and recitals and all of it.

But no your average MC or UMC family can't do that. You're talking about, from the age of 6 or so, having your kid in swim 2-3 days a week, soccer at least twice a week, piano once a week plus daily practice, guitar once a week plus daily practice, tennis at least 2 days a week, and golf at least 2 days a week. Even for a kid who is a natural athlete and musician that is an insane schedule. It would basically be a full time job just to manage his activity schedule and get him to and from everything plus making sure he always has the right gear for everything. So you've either got a parent or a grandparent who can make that their full time job (even if you have a SAHP it means they are outsourcing a lot of the other SAHP stuff -- cleaning and meal planning and vacation planning etc. -- to optimize their kid's extra-curriculars, and that's going to cost $$$) or you are essentially hiring a personal assistant for your elementary grade kid to handle this.

If you are just a standard MC family, this kid does two sports and one instrument and then adds some additional stuff in high school (as strong athlete can add something like track or wrestling, a great musician can easily add guitar to piano in MS or HS) but they aren't doing all 6 activities year round through their entire childhood and adolescence. And several of those activities require an early start and regular practice and coaching (tennis and golf in particular -- teams in these sports are small and you are very unlikely to make them without private coaching even if you are a natural talent simply because there will be other kids who are naturally talented AND who get the private coaching) so they aren't just picking those up later and then getting to a high level of proficiency.

I am UMC and have a kid who is a competitive swimmer and tennis player and who also does ballet and piano. It absolutely requires money and a lot of resources. We couldn't afford it if we had more than one kid, for instance.

Ofcourse it is possible for a MC family because ​my wife and I are two GS-15 government workers with three kids. All of them play golf, tennis, soccer, and practice guitar & saxophone year round, with private lessons.

Your HHI must be around 300K. You’re not middle class (you’re upper middle class).

NP. There are so many colleges here and athletes there who will do private lessons. For less than $100 a half hour.

But that takes parental effort to talk and call around.

And? Poster I replied to continues to not be middle class.

You think hiring a kid to play catch or shoot hoops with your kids is more parental effort than doing it yourself, btw?

No one here (except you) said it was more effort, they said it takes effort. I agree.
It takes effort to find good coaches, lessons, and do the scheduling. It does not take zero effort.

No one here (except you) said they make $300k. You made that up.
Two GS 15 is middle class in Washington DC. Plus they were probably gS13 and 14 for many years whilst raising their children.

Just stop. You’re embarrassing yourself.

“But that takes parental effort to talk and call around”

This was clearly a dig. You’re not fooling anybody. “Less than $100 for half an hour” is not some amazing deal for actual middle class families. It’s still unaffordable.

Two GS-15’s (as the poster said they were) make a minimum of $163k EACH for a household income of over $300k. What part did I make up, exactly? The median HHI for the DC metro area is about $120K. So I repeat, the dual GS-15 poster is NOT middle class (not even in DC). Although I’m sure they feel like they’re just scraping by after they spend all their money on… let me check my notes here…

“three kids. All of them play golf, tennis, soccer, and practice guitar & saxophone year round, with private lessons. ”

I’m surprised the “median” reported income in “metro” DC area, whatever that means, is even that high with all the poverty and uneducated illegal immigrants making up half the population.

This place is such a barbell. Educated & high income on one side, poor & uneducated on the other side. Plus of the latter work black market cash pay jobs. No reported income from whatever year there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This sounds crazy! Do these kids get to ever be kids?

NP.

Yes. They are simply far more efficient at time management.

Yes - this is not the norm. But these do in fact exist.

I already noted 2 exceptional 10 year olds in FCPS. I am sure there are many others

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:- Play guitar 45 minutes every day. Definitely doable,
- Play piano 45 minutes every day. Definitely doable,
- Practice tennis one hour every day. Definitely doable
- Practice golf one hour every day. Definitely doable,
- Swimming one hour every day. Definitely doable,
- Play an 18-hole round of golf (3 1/2 hours) and 2 hours of tennis on Saturday. Definitely doable,
- Practice two hours of guitar and piano on Sunday. Definitely doable,

High school ends at 3pm, and it takes 20 minutes to get to Westwood CC in Vienna. Take three hours to practice golf, tennis, swimming. Get home at 6:30pm, and have dinner at 7pm. Practice piano and guitar from 7:30pm until 9pm. Homework from 9pm until 11pm. Go to bed at 11pm and wake up at 7am. Rinse and repeat.

The question is how many kids can actually do this for years in order to be good?

When do they have time to pet the dog, talk to their GF/BF, watch a sunset, bake brownies, play a board game, curl up with a good book, or just relax?

Grind culture is so dreary.

I couldn’t agree more. It sounds like this guy wasn’t given much time to just be a kid when he was younger and was told that everything he does has to be for the sake of achievement as opposed to strictly the enjoyment of it.

More concerning is eventually he’s going to attempt something and either fail or simply not be the best at it, and that could be completely devastating to him since he’s never experienced not excelling. I’ve know people like this, and their first experience with failure is much more extreme than most others.

6-8 hours after school lets out is a lot of time for sports, homework, eating, hanging out at home.

Seriously, keep an hourly logbook from 3pm onward.


Most parents are too lazy to keep track or even know what their kid actually does from 3pm until 10pm.