Youth Sports Costing More Time and Money
June 23rd, 2008 at 7:00am
Desert News sportswriter, Michael Black looks at the ever increasing demands of youth sports on family finances and time.
If you have some time, look at the crazy comments.
For every dollar we spend on our kids’ youth sports experience we should be tucking a buck into their therapy accounts too.
Posted in Youth Organizations
How weird is it that I feel compelled to comment on my own blog? But to be fair, I commented on Michael’s blog too.
From the time my son was three years of age until he finally hung up his cleats upon entering Rider University, our family, or some part of it, was on a field or in a gym two or three evenings a week and at least one day every weekend.
There was a period of two seasons somewhere in the middle when I had three daughters playing travel softball, and every weekend was spent on a softball field somewhere in the MidAtlantic states, leaving their older brother with the choice to either watch eight hours of girl’s softball, or be left stranded at home until either my wife or I showed up.
Yes, it was quite an expense as well, but not just financially.
Perhaps it was all in the way my ex-wife and I chose to handle the balancing act, but the truth is there was no balance.
In the end our son felt cheated by virtue of the sheer amount of time we invested in his sisters’ pursuit of softball while our daughters each have differing opinions regarding the value of their own athletic experiences, not just in softball, but in basketball, swimming and soccer - all of which each of my kids played at highly competitive levels at one time or another.
Over our many years of involvement, youth athletics was a frequent source of conflict in our family. Differing philosophical points of view, interpretation of circumstances and styles of management often led to disagreements resulting in negative feelings which, in my opinion, bordered on outweighing the obvious benefits of youth sports.
Looking back on it now, I’d probably crank it back a few notches if I had to do it all over again.
I think the benefits of youth athletics are available at a lower level of competition, and without the intense pressure to specialize by the age of 12, I firmly believe my kids would have had a lot more fun along the way playing in a more relaxed environment.