From piano lessons to soccer games and from ballet practices to art classes, children love to do many things. Parents would want their child to learn as many skills as he or she can, they do not find any harm in signing their children up for extracurricular activities since whatever they will learn in those classes can be used in the future and it is also good for child development. However, getting in those classes is not as easy, since there are corresponding prices involved and if your child is overscheduled, the costs pile up.
Average household income
Before you let your child attend any activity, you first need to think about your average household income per year. According to the 2018 report of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the average household income of the working-class family in America is $63,179. This average income includes the daily expenses of a family that consists of four members, but this does not include the extra money that parents need to shell out whenever there are unexpected circumstances that occur.
If your child has too many extracurricular activities, you will be using up at least one-fourth of your average income and you won't have enough for family leisure, family savings, and family emergencies.
Costs of children activities
The costs of the activities depend per area, since city rates are more expensive than rural rates, but then again if you add them all up by the end of the year, the activities will still cost you a lot of money. If your child loves sports, it can cost you thousands of dollars per year just to participate in competitions, and this is just for one child. You can look at $10,000 per year if you live in a city, and that includes their classes and gears.
If your child is into dancing, lessons will cost you $200 to $300 a month, and that includes transportation costs and their dance outfits. The same goes for violin and piano lessons, as well as swimming lessons and gymnastics.
What can you do?
Although letting your child hone their skills is important, it is also vital that you understand your financial limits as parents. Remember that they won't be children forever, and time will come that they will need to go to college, which can be very expensive especially when you are not prepared.
The number one mistake that parents make is that they enroll their child into numerous activities, purposely overscheduling them. It can be because of selfless reasons like wanting their child to have fun and be social, and sometimes it can be for selfish reasons like dropping them off to their classes just so you can have some time for yourself. However, for whatever intent, this needs to be regulated.
In order to avoid too many expenses on your child's activities, it is best to let your child choose one skill that they want to master. May it be playing the piano, the violin, swimming, ballet or dancing. Although it will still cost you money, at least it will be for just one class and not several. After they have mastered a skill, that's when you let them choose the next step.
There are also free classes often held in your local town hall, like dance lessons and arts and crafts. This can help save you a lot of money while keeping your child preoccupied during the summer.
Extracurricular activities have a lot of benefits, but it is not the only thing that is important in your child's life. There are a lot of low-cost classes and activities that you can turn to that will still give your child the same benefits for less the amount.
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