People here who grew up doing all sorts of activities -- how has that helped you in life?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not so much the activities, but not knowing we were poor, served us all well.
We didn't know we were poor. I rode horses competitively, went to a free boarding school, and took 6 languages as part of curriculum.
At the same time we had holes in shoes, no daily hot running water, and definitely nothing beyond basic in the store.
Being able to roam around freely was even better than being able to ride horses. Being active and wondering aroung added greatly to everyone mental and physical health.
I don't even know anyone from my generation who struggles with mental health.
Good mental/physical health leads to great life.

[Anonymous]

I have a close friend who did literally every activity under the sun as a kid and young adult - dance, gymnastics, martial arts, music (both singing and instruments), sports, swimming, and I know I’m forgetting some.

The positives: they are still in great shape, still participate in many of those activities, and are an extremely interesting person people love to be around. Did very well on the dating market when young (who doesn’t want to sleep with a gymnast?).

The negatives: although they did well in school, they loved activities so much that rather than finding a solid career, they pieced together coaching various sports and activities. Which paid okay, not great, but they lost all their main coaching gigs during COVID. Never fully recovered. They also have a LOT of old injuries that caught up to them, and even though they stay in shape, are in a lot of pain.

[Anonymous]

My kids sports left them with physical injuries, scars and emotional injuries. If I had to do it again, I wouldn't enroll them sports. I would have pushed them to do more creative activities like music, art, theatre.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The negatives: although they did well in school, they loved activities so much that rather than finding a solid career, they pieced together coaching various sports and activities. Which paid okay, not great, but they lost all their main coaching gigs during COVID. Never fully recovered. They also have a LOT of old injuries that caught up to them, and even though they stay in shape, are in a lot of pain.

This reminded me of the Netflix show Cheers about a top community college cheerleading program. Some of those mid twenty somethings just couldn’t let go of cheer past the point when they really should have transitioned to their “ grown up” career. There are so many years of eligibility and some of them just .. didn’t leave.

[Anonymous]

In my country, people usually focus on either sports or academics. My family emphasized academics. I took music lessons for many years and had some additional activities, mostly related to math. I never really enjoyed playing an instrument and haven’t touched the piano since becoming an adult, so I don’t see much lasting benefit from the music lessons. On the other hand, you can never have too much math (contrary to what I thought as a child)!

The most impactful experience was a kind of internship at a university. It introduced me to a STEM field I hadn’t considered before and ultimately helped me choose my career path.

[Anonymous]

My back hurts from football. My ankles are a mess from basketball. My elbow hurts from tennis. Other than that, I’m fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was offered "the rich kid sports package" despite not being from a really rich family and declined most of it because I never liked sports.

I am comfortable in water, can ride at a beginner level, and ski at intermediate level. I never mastered sailing, powerboating, or waterskiing. Or any ball sports.

I became passing familiar with three instruments but they didn't stick. Free high school choir did. Along with extracurricular free swing choir.

I also did various things such as ballet, baton, trampoline, pottery, drawing in 8th grade MCPS art class, technical theater, a bit of acting, Model UN, and newspaper writing.

The only things I currently engage in are theater attendance and occasional skiing. To my sons, I passed on some interest in theater, Model UN, swimming, and skiing. I made them try a hip hop dance class. They went for string instruments and orchestra and had no interest in choir. They also skipped ball sports although I sent them to a basketball class for elementary schoolers. In general, they've done less than I did.

From trying a bunch of extracurriculars, I learned to be enthusiastic about trying new things and I'm capable of relating to people who really like the hobbies I tried. It hasn't been that much of a life asset otherwise.

Reading a lot (for free) was the biggest help to my academic career.

It probably would have been good for networking if I had learned/played any ball sport. But I never had any interest. Talking about ball sports is actually pretty common at my company and I can't even fake my way through a conversation.

Wat does this mean

It means my parents would have helped me get into multiple ball and team sports as well as letting me do all the other expensive things I did try (riding, skiing, etc.). They checked to see if I would do swim team, soccer, and softball among other attempts I remember.

Somebody who posted above me talked about "the rich kid sport package" and it resonated with me.

[Anonymous]

There are some differences between those kids whose parents worked until 6 and needed after school activities and those who were simply encouraged to try activities and parent facilitated it.
I do feel like it helped shape me as a person, helped me define who I was, and was not. I did all sorts of things, but could quit if it wasn’t for me. So many I couldn’t list them.
For my kids, I encouraged the same - they did so many interesting activities and it really helped shape their career goals, hobbies, self care activities, coping mechanisms, etc.
- then again, we don’t have a tv and I was limited to 30 mins a day of tv growing up.

[Anonymous]

To the OP- my mother grew up very poor, and free time was spent on necessary farm or household chores. She was brilliant, and the only of her many siblings to go to college (on full scholarship at a prestigious private university). She felt like she had missed so many opportunities that her affluent classmates had enjoyed. She made up for lost time, and did do many things even into adulthood. She loved learning a new hobby or skill or dance or whatever.
Bottom line - do those activities now!