How many kids do you have and how much do you spend per month on their activities?

[Anonymous]

1 kid in elementary school. Plays squash, tournament chess, piano lessons - all with private coaching. Add in travel for tournaments which can include airfare, hotel, car rental, food,etc. it gets very expensive.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:We have three and I just added it up and it comes to around $800 per month. The kids do tennis (3), soccer (2), and gymnastics (2), and horseback riding (1).

Does this sound crazy or is about what you spend?

2 kids. About the same. My boys would sign up for every activity under the sun if I allowed. My oldest has so much energy, he's literally bouncing out of his skin.

So why can't he go ride bikes with friends, Nerf wars, hike in the woods, go to the playground, learn how to skateboard, play basketball or tennis with friends at a local park. Capturfe the flag and other games. They would get a lot more exercise and street smarts than being driven by Mommy to a 50 minute organized activity where they may be active for 30min. They spend more time sitting in the car going to and from.

I am the OP and this is making me lol a bit. Their activities take up an hour or two at most per day. School is only 6 hours. HW takes an hour at the very most. They're asleep for about ten. Being very conservative, that still leaves 5 full hours of awake time. They have plenty of time to play outside and use their imaginations.

I haven't posted in this thread, but I see where she is coming from. My kids are in school 7 hours. They sleep closer to 11 hours. We spend an hour most days on family dinner/clean up, and about an hour on personal hygeine (tooth brushing, shower, getting dressed). So, they have maybe three hours of free time. Nights they spend two hours on an activity (between transportation and doing the activity), they have very little time to go ride bikes and play chess with dad.

Where you spend 2 hours/day on dinner/clean up and on personal hygiene, many families spend far less. (An hour on hygiene would be unheard of for us and my kids love a long shower.) my kids also sleep about 9.5-10 hrs, so our family has more available time than yours with your longer sleep. Time, dinner time, and hygiene times. Plus, some of my kids' activities are in the morning...and some are less than a mile away. My son is in four activities, yet also plays with Lego sets daily, reads more than an hour each day, does his homework, is outside playing with friends many days, etc.

do your kids have screen time? We have zero during the weekdays and limited on the weekends, so that may be another way we have more available time than you.

Sometimes we have screen time during the week in the winter. Not recently. They spend about thirty minutes in the morning getting up, dressed, breakfast, and brushing teeth, and about thirty minutes in the evening taking showers, getting pajamas on, and brushing teeth. I don't think it's really an excessive time. I will say that they are six and seven year old boys, so they aren't super effecient.
Honestly, I am not looking fog more time, to have my kids sleep less, to shorten dinner time, or to minimize shower time/morning routines, or to never just have popcorn and watch the Lego movie on a random Wednesday. I am pretty happy with my life, and my kids are happy.
I was just saying that I understand how some posters fatal that doing activities every night is in I patible with the way their families live.

I'm happy with our choices, too. So why the negative attitude towards those who do it differently? No, we don't do a random movie on a Wed. night but I don't consider that the difference between a happy childhood or not. I see a tremendous benefit out of an activity to which a child is committed long term, esp. when it comes to the teen years. If you disagree, great. I'm not judging you and ask you to not judge me.

?? I am not judging you. I don't even know you.
I was just saying that the nights we have activities it takes up most of our free time, you said that if I had my kids sleep less, cut down on dinner time, and eliminate d screen time that I would have more time. You are right, but I don't want to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have three and I just added it up and it comes to around $800 per month. The kids do tennis (3), soccer (2), and gymnastics (2), and horseback riding (1).

Does this sound crazy or is about what you spend?

2 kids. About the same. My boys would sign up for every activity under the sun if I allowed. My oldest has so much energy, he's literally bouncing out of his skin.

So why can't he go ride bikes with friends, Nerf wars, hike in the woods, go to the playground, learn how to skateboard, play basketball or tennis with friends at a local park. Capturfe the flag and other games. They would get a lot more exercise and street smarts than being driven by Mommy to a 50 minute organized activity where they may be active for 30min. They spend more time sitting in the car going to and from.

I am the OP and this is making me lol a bit. Their activities take up an hour or two at most per day. School is only 6 hours. HW takes an hour at the very most. They're asleep for about ten. Being very conservative, that still leaves 5 full hours of awake time. They have plenty of time to play outside and use their imaginations.

I haven't posted in this thread, but I see where she is coming from. My kids are in school 7 hours. They sleep closer to 11 hours. We spend an hour most days on family dinner/clean up, and about an hour on personal hygeine (tooth brushing, shower, getting dressed). So, they have maybe three hours of free time. Nights they spend two hours on an activity (between transportation and doing the activity), they have very little time to go ride bikes and play chess with dad.

Where you spend 2 hours/day on dinner/clean up and on personal hygiene, many families spend far less. (An hour on hygiene would be unheard of for us and my kids love a long shower.) my kids also sleep about 9.5-10 hrs, so our family has more available time than yours with your longer sleep. Time, dinner time, and hygiene times. Plus, some of my kids' activities are in the morning...and some are less than a mile away. My son is in four activities, yet also plays with Lego sets daily, reads more than an hour each day, does his homework, is outside playing with friends many days, etc.

do your kids have screen time? We have zero during the weekdays and limited on the weekends, so that may be another way we have more available time than you.

OP here. This is a good point as well. Our kids don't watch much tv and I also have my two older kids do their hw in the morning before school starts (because they're more alert then, well rested, and in a better mood to do it than after school or at night). So we knock that out first thing which leaves long empty hours between the time they get home from school and bed. They have a bath before bed every night but that only takes 15 minutes at most.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have three and I just added it up and it comes to around $800 per month. The kids do tennis (3), soccer (2), and gymnastics (2), and horseback riding (1).

Does this sound crazy or is about what you spend?

2 kids. About the same. My boys would sign up for every activity under the sun if I allowed. My oldest has so much energy, he's literally bouncing out of his skin.

So why can't he go ride bikes with friends, Nerf wars, hike in the woods, go to the playground, learn how to skateboard, play basketball or tennis with friends at a local park. Capture the flag and other games. They would get a lot more exercise and street smarts than being driven by Mommy to a 50 minute organized activity where they may be active for 30min. They spend more time sitting in the car going to and from.

good grief.
So you don't believe in piano lessons? Getting skilled at a sport?
How many hours of nerf wars does one kid need a week?

My kids each play a travel sport and take a musical instrument lesson weekly and we spend about $8K/year on these things combined per year. AND the also have about 20 hours of free play per week. Pick-up basketball, bike rides through the alley, Nerf wars, trampoline jumping, video game playing, baking, lemonade stand hosting. They do all these things too--most of them several times per week.

I think the point is you don't have to sign kids up for every activity under the sun, just because your kid has energy, like a PP suggest. I too can not believe people spend this much money on activities.

OP here. But what are you supposed to do when they *want* to do these things and practically beg you? We've tried other things that they didn't like and we dropped them (like piano lessons). These are all things they love dearly. It makes me happy to see them happy. Plus I think part of being an interesting person who is engaged in the world is to have hobbies you are passionate about. That often starts in childhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have three and I just added it up and it comes to around $800 per month. The kids do tennis (3), soccer (2), and gymnastics (2), and horseback riding (1).

Does this sound crazy or is about what you spend?

It doesn't sound crazy, it sounds insane.

You spend almost $10,000 on kids activities a year!!

Do they even know how to just go outside and play with friends??

+1

That is sickening. The wealthy just waste their money. God forbid their kids learn to have fun on their own and maybe donate a little to kids that have zero opportunities.

What a holier than thou attitude. There is nothing wrong with enriching a child's life the way OP is choosing to do. If she has the means, she can spend it however she wants. People talk about wealth as if it just appears from the sky. People work hard for their money and can spend it however they please. Having money and spending it on your own family does not an evil person make. You sound jealous.

NP here. Hate to break it to you but those top few % of wealthy citizens usually don't work hard at all. They came from money, were given money, and can bank/invest it easily. The medium income in the USA is around $50,000. Sitting here talking about spending $10,000 to $20,000 on your kids activities is not the norm, even in the DC Metro where medium income is $75-90,000 pre-tax.

And I am not the PP but I doubt they are jealous. Jacking your kids up with daily expensive activities does not make them better human beings. And there are many studies that show over scheduling kids leads to child and adult anxiety, depression, as well as an increase in divorce. Most of these families do not have family meals either. So no one should treat it as a positive. A luxury isn't always a good thing. Hyper-parenting is a disease.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have three and I just added it up and it comes to around $800 per month. The kids do tennis (3), soccer (2), and gymnastics (2), and horseback riding (1).

Does this sound crazy or is about what you spend?

2 kids. About the same. My boys would sign up for every activity under the sun if I allowed. My oldest has so much energy, he's literally bouncing out of his skin.

So why can't he go ride bikes with friends, Nerf wars, hike in the woods, go to the playground, learn how to skateboard, play basketball or tennis with friends at a local park. Capture the flag and other games. They would get a lot more exercise and street smarts than being driven by Mommy to a 50 minute organized activity where they may be active for 30min. They spend more time sitting in the car going to and from.

Meh, back in the 80's I did all that PLUS did a couple of classes and sports as well each season and so did my friends. It's a myth that in this area the whole activities thing just started in the past few years. It's been going on for a long time.

[Anonymous]

Kid 1 - 8th grade
Spanish tutoring $35/week
Speech Language for executive functioning $110/week
Physical therapy $100/week
piano $35/week
soccer $120/one session per year
school soccer - free
school tech club free
summer camps $600
Karate ~$250 month
gym membership $35/month

Kid 2 - 4th grade
school drama club $70 x two sessions
band - free
piano $35/week
soccer $120/one session per year
gymnastics $80/month
school patrol free
school tech club free
summer camp ~$1000
gym membership $35/month

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have three and I just added it up and it comes to around $800 per month. The kids do tennis (3), soccer (2), and gymnastics (2), and horseback riding (1).

Does this sound crazy or is about what you spend?

It doesn't sound crazy, it sounds insane.

You spend almost $10,000 on kids activities a year!!

Do they even know how to just go outside and play with friends??

+1

That is sickening. The wealthy just waste their money. God forbid their kids learn to have fun on their own and maybe donate a little to kids that have zero opportunities.

What a holier than thou attitude. There is nothing wrong with enriching a child's life the way OP is choosing to do. If she has the means, she can spend it however she wants. People talk about wealth as if it just appears from the sky. People work hard for their money and can spend it however they please. Having money and spending it on your own family does not an evil person make. You sound jealous.

NP here. Hate to break it to you but those top few % of wealthy citizens usually don't work hard at all. They came from money, were given money, and can bank/invest it easily. The medium income in the USA is around $50,000. Sitting here talking about spending $10,000 to $20,000 on your kids activities is not the norm, even in the DC Metro where medium income is $75-90,000 pre-tax.

And I am not the PP but I doubt they are jealous. Jacking your kids up with daily expensive activities does not make them better human beings. And there are many studies that show over scheduling kids leads to child and adult anxiety, depression, as well as an increase in divorce. Most of these families do not have family meals either. So no one should treat it as a positive. A luxury isn't always a good thing. Hyper-parenting is a disease.

According to the OP, each of the three kids does 2 activities except the one who does horseback riding who does three. How us that "over scheduling"? My 2 kids each do 2 activities and we don't feel overburdened at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have three and I just added it up and it comes to around $800 per month. The kids do tennis (3), soccer (2), and gymnastics (2), and horseback riding (1).

Does this sound crazy or is about what you spend?

2 kids. About the same. My boys would sign up for every activity under the sun if I allowed. My oldest has so much energy, he's literally bouncing out of his skin.

So why can't he go ride bikes with friends, Nerf wars, hike in the woods, go to the playground, learn how to skateboard, play basketball or tennis with friends at a local park. Capture the flag and other games. They would get a lot more exercise and street smarts than being driven by Mommy to a 50 minute organized activity where they may be active for 30min. They spend more time sitting in the car going to and from.

Meh, back in the 80's I did all that PLUS did a couple of classes and sports as well each season and so did my friends. It's a myth that in this area the whole activities thing just started in the past few years. It's been going on for a long time.

I disagree. I grew up in a middle income neighborhood here and was always outside playing. One sports practice a week, and we rode our bikes to it. I was never in activities in preschool or K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have three and I just added it up and it comes to around $800 per month. The kids do tennis (3), soccer (2), and gymnastics (2), and horseback riding (1).

Does this sound crazy or is about what you spend?

It doesn't sound crazy, it sounds insane.

You spend almost $10,000 on kids activities a year!!

Do they even know how to just go outside and play with friends??

+1

That is sickening. The wealthy just waste their money. God forbid their kids learn to have fun on their own and maybe donate a little to kids that have zero opportunities.

What a holier than thou attitude. There is nothing wrong with enriching a child's life the way OP is choosing to do. If she has the means, she can spend it however she wants. People talk about wealth as if it just appears from the sky. People work hard for their money and can spend it however they please. Having money and spending it on your own family does not an evil person make. You sound jealous.

NP here. Hate to break it to you but those top few % of wealthy citizens usually don't work hard at all. They came from money, were given money, and can bank/invest it easily. The medium income in the USA is around $50,000. Sitting here talking about spending $10,000 to $20,000 on your kids activities is not the norm, even in the DC Metro where medium income is $75-90,000 pre-tax.

And I am not the PP but I doubt they are jealous. Jacking your kids up with daily expensive activities does not make them better human beings. And there are many studies that show over scheduling kids leads to child and adult anxiety, depression, as well as an increase in divorce. Most of these families do not have family meals either. So no one should treat it as a positive. A luxury isn't always a good thing. Hyper-parenting is a disease.

Uh, we make about 559k and do not come from money, we're not given money, and our investments are not huge and for both of our kids we easily spend 10k-15k on extras.

We have dinner each and every night. Cooked from scratch ad a matter of fact. Tonight we played Skip Bo after dinner, it's usually that or Phase 10, especially when the weather is bad. Kids home at 245 it's not exactly a struggle to get things done activities and all. Between them getting home and bed, it's 5hrs 45min. I'm home at 5 and DH works from home when he's not traveling (2 nights a week he travels).

Carving out 90min in an available span of nearly 6hrs, is not over scheduled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have three and I just added it up and it comes to around $800 per month. The kids do tennis (3), soccer (2), and gymnastics (2), and horseback riding (1).

Does this sound crazy or is about what you spend?

2 kids. About the same. My boys would sign up for every activity under the sun if I allowed. My oldest has so much energy, he's literally bouncing out of his skin.

So why can't he go ride bikes with friends, Nerf wars, hike in the woods, go to the playground, learn how to skateboard, play basketball or tennis with friends at a local park. Capture the flag and other games. They would get a lot more exercise and street smarts than being driven by Mommy to a 50 minute organized activity where they may be active for 30min. They spend more time sitting in the car going to and from.

Meh, back in the 80's I did all that PLUS did a couple of classes and sports as well each season and so did my friends. It's a myth that in this area the whole activities thing just started in the past few years. It's been going on for a long time.

I disagree. I grew up in a middle income neighborhood here and was always outside playing. One sports practice a week, and we rode our bikes to it. I was never in activities in preschool or K.

Lol! Well I grew up in Old Salem Village apartments in Culmore, right near Baileys Crossroads and calling that at the time middle income, it most certainly was not. We were considered THE poors. All 3 of us kids did soccer ( and 2 of us got a sport scolarship, 75% ride) and both my sister and I did ballet which took up an obscene amount of time and there were NO ballet studios in Bailey's Crossroads, but at least we had a kick ass a Chinese Restaurant!

My parents might have been poor and I bet we qualified for all kinds of free crap, but they damn well knew these activities would open doors and you bet they did. They afforded college for is and exposed us to upper income families and made us comfortable in social area that we would havr never otherwise had exposure to which as a "middle income " person might be hard for you to understand the importance of that. Clearly upper income families know quite well the benefits of exposure, as did my nearly illiterate mom and dad.

And now I give back to my mom. Moved her out of that roach motel and bought her a nice garden condo in Fairfax. No roaches, mice, blaring music, domestic fights, no gangs, and nobody getting high in the hallway and best of all, the great luxury of a washer and dryer. Moving on up...la dee dah!