Comments on: Paying for Activities

By: How One Debtor Resolves Her Credit Card Problems

How One Debtor Resolves Her Credit Card Problems — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:35:24 +0000

[...] Almost Frugal: Paying For Activities [...]

By: Imene

Imene — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:05:36 +0000

You make miss France right now. We live in NJ and the cost of the activities is insane. 12 weeks of gym is $450, 8 weeks of soccer is $240…
And there seem to be an unwritten law that states that you have to sign up your kids to as many activities as possible or you’re a bad mother. So I decided to be a bad mother. Right now the boys go to a french preschool and they have swim lessons and that’a about it. They are 4 and 3.
I don’t believe you should overwhelm children with activities. As they grow older and request things I will allow one sport and one artistic activity and I think that’s enough. But I sometimes feel judged by other parents.
Imene´s last blog ..WIP wednesday : Tomten

By: Lis @ Ace Cash Express

Lis @ Ace Cash Express — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:25:21 +0000

I think that adding more activities like above will have a positive result to them in the coming years. As long as they are not burned out, the children will increase their stress tolerance. The problem is if the activities are becoming too much for them that they’ll eventually realize that they’re not progressing on anything.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:34:12 +0000

When our kids were young I always found it hard to keep their number of activities to a ‘reasonable’ number. I didn’t want them (or me) to feel like they were missing out on something that they should/wanted to be in. I also found that sometimes the time commitment was alot. More than we (the parents) wanted. More than the kids wanted. As the kids got older it seemed that it got easier. We f inally made a family rule that each child could do no more than 2 activities at the same time. This helped all of us. Now, they’re teenagers and it seems that we’re constantly running again. However, I’ve come to the conclusion that I just need to enjoy it because before long they’ll be gone and we won’t have anyone to run after.
Nancy´s last blog ..feel good weekend