Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For us, it's been worth it and we aren't going to be playing in college or anything. It's about so much more than just that.

That's what every parent says once they realize they feel for the travel sports scam and wasted 1000s of dollars...

NP. DCUM is filled with so many weirdos. This is so bizarrely aggressive.

Nothing aggressive about it.

I have three kids who went through youth sports. Every travel parent starts realizes that their 8u superstar fizzled out in middle school and now the kid and parent have an identity crisis.

Unfortunately this is DCUM, where many post obsessively about the ROI of anything and everything that kids do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For us, it's been worth it and we aren't going to be playing in college or anything. It's about so much more than just that.

That's what every parent says once they realize they feel for the travel sports scam and wasted 1000s of dollars...

NP. DCUM is filled with so many weirdos. This is so bizarrely aggressive.

Anonymous wrote:For us, it's been worth it and we aren't going to be playing in college or anything. It's about so much more than just that.

That's what every parent says once they realize they feel for the travel sports scam and wasted 1000s of dollars...

For us, it's been worth it and we aren't going to be playing in college or anything. It's about so much more than just that.

Anonymous wrote:It really depends on what you mean by “worth it”.

Likely to end up playing in college? No, then probably not worth it. For the vast majority of kids that will not pan out, regardless. If your kid is on track to play in college, you will probably know it (be told by more than one reliable source).

Worth it in terms of physical activity, fun with friends, staying off of screens, life lessons? Probably yes- to a point.

I do think that balance for the family needs to come into play with the above factors, though. For some families, it is less of an imposition (fewer siblings, more flexible work schedules or other factors) or they really love it. For others, it is too much of a strain or imposes too much on siblings’ lives.

Edited to add: my kids are all in high school now, but did a lot of travel sports, intensive dance etc as well. The one thing I did see was that kids without “an activity to keep them busy” (whether that be sports, music or other things) seemed to get super into video games or other things that are not good ways to be spending time. Especially the boys.

It really depends on what you mean by “worth it”.

Likely to end up playing in college? No, then probably not worth it. For the vast majority of kids that will not pan out, regardless. If your kid is on track to play in college, you will probably know it (be told by more than one reliable source).

Worth it in terms of physical activity, fun with friends, staying off of screens, life lessons? Probably yes- to a point.

I do think that balance for the family needs to come into play with the above factors, though. For some families, it is less of an imposition (fewer siblings, more flexible work schedules or other factors) or they really love it. For others, it is too much of a strain or imposes too much on siblings’ lives.

It's worth it if it brings your children joy. That's all.

My daughter was very into her music instrument when she was little: won competitions, soloed to Carnegie Hall, etc. And then her interest waned and she understood that it takes a ton more work to get from "noteworthy pre-professional" to "finalist at the Queen Elizabeth competition", than it takes to get from "beginner" to "advanced". And moreover, that this ton of work would not attract any additional interest from colleges, since they have no clue, and she's not planning on applying to Curtis or Juilliard. I think all endeavors are like this - there is a point of diminishing returns if you're not planning on becoming a top professional in that subject.

So as a high schooler, she's coasting on her previous hard work, practicing a decent amount but not insanely, and applying her energies to other things.

It's not worth pushing them and forcing them to do travel. It is worth them being active and having fun doing physical things, and being able to play with their friends.

"Worth it" depends on the goal and enjoyment. I was on swim team as a teen, I was never particularly good but I'm really glad I'm a strong swimmer and I still do it for exercise.

Sports teach kids a lot - teamwork, timeliness, rules, following directions, and keep them healthy/active.

It's fine not to go overboard. My kids tried a little of everything. We didn't sign them up for something without input. If there is something they don't want to do, there is no reason to fight over it, wasting time and energy on something no one is enjoying. We also only permitted one sport/activity per season.

I have one who plays in college, and one who stopped at middle school, one who stopped at high school.

Do you love lugging your kids to sports and dance? We have friends who basically live and breathe sports (though at the recreational and regional travel level, not at the all-over-the-country travel level). They love being that busy, genuinely love it and would be bored if they weren't. They make friends on every team they are on and enjoy that kind of socialization. It's fun for the kids and the parents.

We have other friends who enjoy being hyper focused on a specific sport for each kid. The kid lives and breathes the sport and begs to do it, like 14:01 mentioned. The parents are into it enough to enjoy doing that specific sport all the time.

It works for those people.

For the rest of us? There's limiting what your kid does to what works for your family - an activity per kid at a level you enjoy for example - and being content.

Post this in the sports forum.

If you asking for a specific roi the answer is probably not it's not worth it. But if they enjoy it, are making friends and memories, getting exercise, being part of a team, etc, it depends on how much value you place on that. And also depends on what you would otherwise be doing.

How old are they?

No, it's not at all worth it if they don't LOVE it and beg to do it.

Too many people also start all of it way too young.

I have two very athletic boys and an average girl. We spend all our time lugging these kids to sports and dance. We did travel sports for years and now at the next level of AAU and tournaments. We have to travel out of town for all these competitions. My boys are good, but not THAT good. They aren’t D1 athletic recruit good, maybe walk on D3 level.