Extracurriculars you regret supporting

[Anonymous]

Horse riding and skiing are incredibly expensive as activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Karate!!
What a money pit.
My kids have their “junior black belts” - whatever that means. They are finally done but I look back and wonder what I was thinking

+1. These karate/taekwondo academies are a scam. Total money pit. But god my DD loves it!

My kid loved karate more than any other activity. It laid the groundwork for an exercise routine that he’s kept up throughout college. Worth it if only for that. But I’m pretty sure he couldn’t fight anyone IRL

If you are looking for this, encourage wrestling. My son wrestled for many years and I wouldn’t want to mess with him in a dark alley. It’s like muscle memory, he can pin you down fast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not one mention of football.

Few pursue that sport in educated urban areas. It's a terribly ugly and dangerous sport. We neither watch it, nor allow our DCs to play it. We have zero friends with kids in football. You have to be huge physically too (usually overweight) and willing to damage your brain.

I have seen research that tackle under age 13 is bad. I have seen research done on pro football players, who play for year, about CTE. I have not seen anything that says playing a couple years of high school football is worse than other contact sports. If you have, please share.

I would discourage other contact sports too. My kids do swim team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not one mention of football.

Few pursue that sport in educated urban areas. It's a terribly ugly and dangerous sport. We neither watch it, nor allow our DCs to play it. We have zero friends with kids in football. You have to be huge physically too (usually overweight) and willing to damage your brain.

I have seen research that tackle under age 13 is bad. I have seen research done on pro football players, who play for year, about CTE. I have not seen anything that says playing a couple years of high school football is worse than other contact sports. If you have, please share.

I would discourage other contact sports too. My kids do swim team.

I have seen several swimmers slam their head into the wall during a backstroke race.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not one mention of football.

Few pursue that sport in educated urban areas. It's a terribly ugly and dangerous sport. We neither watch it, nor allow our DCs to play it. We have zero friends with kids in football. You have to be huge physically too (usually overweight) and willing to damage your brain.

I have seen research that tackle under age 13 is bad. I have seen research done on pro football players, who play for year, about CTE. I have not seen anything that says playing a couple years of high school football is worse than other contact sports. If you have, please share.

I would discourage other contact sports too. My kids do swim team.

I have seen several swimmers slam their head into the wall during a backstroke race.

How about some data to go with your anecdote of “several swimmers”?

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5538a1.htm

And if you are interested in rates or catastrophic injury

https://nccsir.unc.edu/reports/

Hopefully football is becoming safer with more education, safer instruction, better equipment, etc. But it’s still the most injury prone overall and catastrophic injury prone sport on a per capita basis for high schoolers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not one mention of football.

Few pursue that sport in educated urban areas. It's a terribly ugly and dangerous sport. We neither watch it, nor allow our DCs to play it. We have zero friends with kids in football. You have to be huge physically too (usually overweight) and willing to damage your brain.

I have seen research that tackle under age 13 is bad. I have seen research done on pro football players, who play for year, about CTE. I have not seen anything that says playing a couple years of high school football is worse than other contact sports. If you have, please share.

I would discourage other contact sports too. My kids do swim team.

I have seen several swimmers slam their head into the wall during a backstroke race.

My kid isn't that fast

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Competitive dance - costumes, makeup, dance moves, etc. Who are they trying to impress? Creeps?

+ 1,000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not one mention of football.

Few pursue that sport in educated urban areas. It's a terribly ugly and dangerous sport. We neither watch it, nor allow our DCs to play it. We have zero friends with kids in football. You have to be huge physically too (usually overweight) and willing to damage your brain.

I have seen research that tackle under age 13 is bad. I have seen research done on pro football players, who play for year, about CTE. I have not seen anything that says playing a couple years of high school football is worse than other contact sports. If you have, please share.

I would discourage other contact sports too. My kids do swim team.

I have seen several swimmers slam their head into the wall during a backstroke race.

How about some data to go with your anecdote of “several swimmers”?

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5538a1.htm

And if you are interested in rates or catastrophic injury

https://nccsir.unc.edu/reports/

Hopefully football is becoming safer with more education, safer instruction, better equipment, etc. But it’s still the most injury prone overall and catastrophic injury prone sport on a per capita basis for high schoolers.

The previous poster doesn't have any data to support the anecdote of "several swimmers" hitting their head in backstroke - it's something anyone who knows anything about swimming knows that they completely fabricated. It just doesn't happen in competitive swimming with any regularity with the exception of maybe the 8U's who are just starting out and even with them it's very rare. After that, they have their stroke count dialed in and will have an arm extended. Not to mention, to compare the speed of a swimmer with the speeds reached on foot in football is silly.

What can and does happen on occasion is that swimmers run into each other when sharing a lane in practice or warm-ups. Again, this is more likely to happen w/ 8U's who are just starting out and haven't yet developed the control and "lane awareness" that more experienced swimmers have.

As far a Football goes, the whole fundamental and foundational aspect of the sport is violent and repetitive contact. There's just no getting away from that. In the flagship research being done at Boston University under the direction of Dr. Ann McKee, they have found evidence of CTE in younger males who had only played through high school or played some or through college level; a finding which completely tears down the belief/wishful thinking that it is only if you play at the pro level that the damage will occur.

People tend to focus on the concussions and they cannot be ignored, there are brain health implications. However, CTE is more complicated than that and there is belief that the numerous, over and over and over, sub-concussive blows are likely to be as much as, if not more, of a contributor to CTE and long term brain health than concussions.

Knowing what is known now, it would be negligent to have a kid younger than high school participating in contact football. It is detrimental to their long term brain health.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Karate!!
What a money pit.
My kids have their “junior black belts” - whatever that means. They are finally done but I look back and wonder what I was thinking

+1. These karate/taekwondo academies are a scam. Total money pit. But god my DD loves it!

My kid loved karate more than any other activity. It laid the groundwork for an exercise routine that he’s kept up throughout college. Worth it if only for that. But I’m pretty sure he couldn’t fight anyone IRL

If you are looking for this, encourage wrestling. My son wrestled for many years and I wouldn’t want to mess with him in a dark alley. It’s like muscle memory, he can pin you down fast.

My MS son wrestles. It's his favorite sport and he has dreams of wrestling in college.

And it's true what they say: once you've wrestled, everything else is easy.

Its definitely not for everyone, but it instill a confidence like no other sport can

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is learning to fly. The pilots license isn’t too bad compared to other activities. It’s the continued plane rental when she wants to fly. She is working at the airport so she is contributing but it’s still a lot.

For whatever it's worth, if she eventually earns a CFI, it will pay off.

- CFI, still trying to rationalize the money

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is learning to fly. The pilots license isn’t too bad compared to other activities. It’s the continued plane rental when she wants to fly. She is working at the airport so she is contributing but it’s still a lot.

For whatever it's worth, if she eventually earns a CFI, it will pay off.

- CFI, still trying to rationalize the money

My cousin went to the naval academy and is convinced that coming in with a pilots license helped him get flight school and cut down on the learning curve once there

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not one mention of football.

Few pursue that sport in educated urban areas. It's a terribly ugly and dangerous sport. We neither watch it, nor allow our DCs to play it. We have zero friends with kids in football. You have to be huge physically too (usually overweight) and willing to damage your brain.

We currently live in the rural southeast and are horrified that parents allow primary school children to play tackle football. It's really awful, but for a lot of kids, their only chance at college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is learning to fly. The pilots license isn’t too bad compared to other activities. It’s the continued plane rental when she wants to fly. She is working at the airport so she is contributing but it’s still a lot.

For whatever it's worth, if she eventually earns a CFI, it will pay off.

- CFI, still trying to rationalize the money

My cousin went to the naval academy and is convinced that coming in with a pilots license helped him get flight school and cut down on the learning curve once there

Yes! If nothing else, it looks great on college applications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not one mention of football.

Few pursue that sport in educated urban areas. It's a terribly ugly and dangerous sport. We neither watch it, nor allow our DCs to play it. We have zero friends with kids in football. You have to be huge physically too (usually overweight) and willing to damage your brain.

I have seen research that tackle under age 13 is bad. I have seen research done on pro football players, who play for year, about CTE. I have not seen anything that says playing a couple years of high school football is worse than other contact sports. If you have, please share.

I would discourage other contact sports too. My kids do swim team.

I have seen several swimmers slam their head into the wall during a backstroke race.

Or cut each other on purpose with paddles. Not so innocent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is learning to fly. The pilots license isn’t too bad compared to other activities. It’s the continued plane rental when she wants to fly. She is working at the airport so she is contributing but it’s still a lot.

For whatever it's worth, if she eventually earns a CFI, it will pay off.

- CFI, still trying to rationalize the money

This seems like a bad idea for a teen girl. Unless her flight instructor is a woman. A young teen girl spending a lot of 1:1 time, including up in a plane with a middle aged man is a terrible idea.