We were the “mean parents”. We asked a couple of things of our kids…
- They had to do one sport a year...not every season...but each year. When they were little, they did rec soccer. In middle school, both did cross country. In high school DS did tennis and DD did swimming. All at school...no travel anything.
- They had to do some kind of music, we didn’t care what. Both were in a children’s choir, and both each played two instruments and took instrument lessons. This continued through HS...and college.
- In terms of outside of school activities...we just weren’t able to run a taxi service...so we allowed only one out of school activity.
Kid one and kid two did dance until grade 3, then children’s choir, then precollege orchestra. We just couldn’t be in a lot of places at once. Children’s choir involved a lot of driving and two rehearsals a week…plus performances. And not near home. Precollege orchestra was about a 40 minute drive from home. Totally worth it for our kids…but we were so happy when they could drive themselves.
Costs? Probably the same as some sports…