Parents are going into debt over their kids’ extracurricular activities

Signing kids up for extracurricular activities could bring them extra income someday. Or at least, eight in 10 parents in a new survey are hoping — especially considering that two-thirds of them have gone into debt to pay for those soccer, ballet, painting and piano lessons.

CompareCards.com surveyed more than 700 parents with young children who participate in sports, hobbies and other passion projects outside of class.

And the more that these moms and dads spent, the more they thought that it would pay off in the long run: 90% of parents who dropped at least $4,000 a year believe their kid will earn money from that activity, compared to 75% of parents who spend less than $1,000 who said the same.

“And what the survey showed is, it’s not just sports parents who have these big dreams and big hopes for their sons and daughters; it’s music parents, it’s cheerleading parents, it’s debate team parents,” Matt Schulz, chief industry analyst at CompareCards, told MarketWatch. Indeed, sports were the most popular activities (reported by 30% of parents), but folks are also footing the bill for music (16%), dance (15%), gymnastics (12%), cheerleading (9%), martial arts (8%), beauty pageants (3%) and debate teams (3%), with about half (46%) spending more than $1,000 annually, and a quarter (27%) coughing up more than $2,000.

This supports a recent University of Michigan poll that found 55% of parents said school-sponsored sports teams and extracurricular activities helped boost their child’s college application. (Granted, that was skewed toward wealthier parents, as three times as many low-income parents as high-income ones said that the benefits of these activities were not worth the cost.)


https://www.marketwatch.com/story/parents-are-going-into-debt-over-their-kids-extracurricular-activities-2019-04-26

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