I am an empty nester now, and I remember how weird it felt when my schedule no longer revolved around the activities of my kids. I've never thought about how much money I'd spent on those extracurricular activities. The results of a new poll that tries to get a handle on what parents spend on extracurricular activity is kinda stunning.
Let's see: my oldest daughter performed in color guard (lots of trips around Iowa and Minnesota); my middle son was in drumline (lots of trips around Iowa and Nebraska); my youngest was a gymnast (lots of stinky gyms). That's a lot of mileage and...walking tacos - never mind all the DIRECT costs of equipment, hotel rooms, entry fees, etc....
I don't know...does a million dollars seem excessive???
A new poll says parents are actually going into debt over extracurricular activities.
The poll finds that 62% of parents say they are in debt because of their kid’s activities with 10% owing more than $5,000 and another 27% owing more than $3,000. What’s more, more than half of parents say they are spending more than they could really afford for their kids activities, although 48% don’t regret doing so. But this debt is worrisome for some parents, with 64% saying they are stressed about paying for their kids’ activities.
And it seems many parents believe shelling out all this money will be worth it in the end because it will eventually pay off when it comes to their kid’s future. The poll finds that 81% of parents believe the competitive activity their child is involved in, like say baseball or basketball, will one day lead to an income for their kid. And that number goes up, the more parents pay for an activity, with 90% of those who spend $4,000 a year thinking the activity will pay off in the future, as compared to 75% who spend less than $1,000 a year.
So what activities are most parents paying for? Well, the most popular activities are sports related (30%), followed by music (16%), dance (15%), gymnastics (12%) and cheerleading (9%).