July 25, 2013

The Cost of Children's Activities

I never stuck with anything when I was younger and once I got to high school, I didn't have any hobbies.  Which led to a lot of time on my hands.  Too much time with nothing to do isn't always a good thing for a teenager. 

When I was younger, I tried lots of different activities: brownies, jazz, tap, and soccer.  Some things I wanted to try my mom wouldn't let me like softball because my sister had tried it and didn't stick with it.  I wanted to try cheerleading in middle school but by that time I would have had to been able to do splits and flips and I never stuck with gymnastics so that was out.  I played flute in middle school but our band teacher was a jerk so I quit.

My point in this rambling is that its really important to me that our girls get to find something they really enjoy doing and that they get to keep doing it.

Little Ripples has tried ballet and tap and didn't want to continue each of those.  This summer I signed both girls up for gymnastics.  Little Ripples LOVES gymnastics.  Baby Ripples does too but at her age group they aren't really doing gymnastics, more just letting them play.

Last year Little Ripples was on a bumper bowling league with her cousin and she's excited for that to start up again in the fall.  Baby Ripples will be able to do it this year also.

For Little Ripples' birthday she asked for a real guitar like her dad has.  We bought her a child's size acoustic guitar.  But I want her to actually no how to play it so we signed her up for lessons.

All these things really add up.

Bumper Bowling League for 2 kids - $12 per week
Gymnastics for 2 kids - $18 per week
Guitar Lessons for Little Ripples - $17 per week

Ouch!  $188 per month in fees.  Well I guess I know where most of our rental property income will be going.  Luckily none of these activities are ones that require lots of expensive gear to be able to do.

2 comments:

  1. That really does add up. That's a lot of activities for the kiddos.

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    1. I know it sounds like a lot. I just can't decide on any to get rid of. Mr. Ripples wanted to stop gymnastics during the school year since they'll have bowling but Little Ripples LOVES gymnastics. That's probably her favourite and if we stop for the school year, she'll basically be starting over next summer.

      I figure Little Ripples will tell me when she doesn't want to do them anymore like she has in the past. And the bowling is only during the school year, the gymnastics goes in six weeks sessions and then has a break week in between so really I'm not paying for these things every week of the year. If I averaged it out, it would be more like an average of $135 a month.

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