And if you did absolutely nothing except sit at home and stare off into the darkness you could save even more money. Life isn't about doing nothing. There are significant benefits to kids playing sports. Factor that in and the cost is insignificant.

If parents are viewing club soccer as an investment, to be paid back in the form of a professional contract or a D1 scholarship--yeah, it's a bad investment. You're better off spending the money on Powerball.

But if viewed as a healthy activity for its own sake--it's not at all unreasonable, especially if you avoid a travel team. It's no worse than spending the money on piano lessons, or a gym membership, or a season pass at Meadows, or a season ticket for the Blazers or Timbers, or any number of other activities that cost money.

I appreciate your input and did try out your calculator. However, I take issue with an assumption of yours...that all parents pay out EITHER for soccer-related expenses OR invest in college-savings accounts. Sometimes they do both and/or grandparents or others do so for their families as well. Yes. Some families think that a competitive sport is the road to athletic scholarships and might not be saving as they should, but saving for everyone is the key point. More importantly, they should be making sure that the child is thriving academically and socially as well. This ensures finding a best-fit college.

Applying solely on the basis of 'revenue and expense' will open the eyes of some folks who have the same experience as your family, but a software program, even created by an expert such as yourself, has its flaws:

Valuing our time based on gross income and using it to determine our investment in our children's activities? Sorry but time is precious and if this is what our children enjoy, then so do we. Your experience that your child burned out and you realized what you spent, is the reality of quite a few, and a chance for families to have honest discussions every year.

How do you know how much we paid out for travel? What is your assumption/median amount to apply? Who traveled? What other considerations should have been inputs? Were fundraisers done? Any financial aid awarded to offset: registration fees, uniforms, travel? What about additional expenses: Team fees? Coach's travel fees?

Paying thousands of dollars so the Oregon parent can say 'I'm with the BAND' doesn't really need a calculator to reconcile this insanity, a lobotomy is cheaper and more effective..

Families spend money in different ways. It doesn't mean that we are all of the mindset you claim, nor could our choice be thought insane.

Soccer for our kids turned out to be a great experience and worth the price. We also know families that chose other experiences and spent the same amount of money. It's our choice, our money, and our kids are happy and doing well off the turf as well.

I just did this and it was pretty much right on the money. The value of my time was overkill because I don't get paid to do anything after hoursand all of our practices, games and tournaments do not impede on business time. Thanks for sharing though.

Yeah, the "value of time" thing is stupid. It's not as if I'm choosing to either drop off kid at soccer practice, or work an extra hour at the plant. I'd be involved in my kids' lives if they played soccer, or trumpet, or the robotics team, or anything else. The choice isn't soccer or sit at home on the playstation while parents work extra hours.

Bottom line is this. If you think you're investing in anything but good times and exercise you're sorely mistaken. Not everyone can afford club soccer (which I hate, but that's a different subject). Your kids can still have a good time playing rec in the cheapest pair of boots available, heck maybe even more fun without the pressure.

Personally, my kid wanted a more challenging soccer experience where his teammates were there to train hard and get better. He wasn't getting that in rec because the dedication level of some kids wasn't as great as others. We could afford club so we went that way. If we couldn't then he'd either play rec, or something else. If you think you're going to breed a professional player because you pay for club (and private lessons) then you're in for a sad surprise (or maybe not maybe your kid is going to be a star)

What a great experience it is to be able to relish the aroma of burning money, my friend (that is your own sick perversion), but like you said it's your choice. What a wonderful gift and perspective you have with your off center mindset, we get it, you enjoy watching the money in go up in flames. In soccer and in life.


Whatever makes you happy, it's not illegal, but sadly, it's criminal.

Grateful that I've not chosen to join you in taking the bitterness pill.

Your judgment of me, without knowing me, benefits your ego. No problem for me.
I didn't burn money; I worked hard for it and then made the choice of how to share it with my loved ones, and sometimes others that needed help. We all budgeted, and prioritized. My kids also learned that they had to also work and commit to fundraising. We also gave up other wants because the kids wanted to continue playing competitive soccer.

As someone who participated in competitive sports growing up, I knew the benefits they offered and also saw the ugly mess it was for young people, when California pulled the rug out from under youth programs and shut them all down. Pretty soon the growth of gangs and drugs spread as many kids were bored and had nothing to do.

I know how money is well spent, and its investing in my kids. So sorry for you and your bad experiences in life. Something obviously affected you in a negative manner.

It doesn't take a much to set you off, get over it.

If you really believed you were getting value by spending thousands of dollars of airfare, lodging & van travel you would be called expedia or orbitz. You are neither, just a clueless link in a chain of fools hoodwinked by a label and a pipe dream.

Just a quick take away, you can invest yourself into your children as a great parent.
That's priceless and doesn't cost a cent.

Paying for airfare to get slaughtered by other teams is really just sick and borders on abuse.

Club soccer is a pyramid scam....no, yours kids will never do anything with this crappy training...Never. Go have them do lots of other things and round out their lives you gullible dumb freaks.

Nice try. Your insults are moot, but thanks for your reply.

So now we're getting somewhere with what might possibly be your triggers...
Bitter towards others for choosing to live their lives their way, experiences beyond your control.

You're right. Time with kids is priceless. Time does not have to always be measured by monetary measure. As someone before posted, the person didn't consider earnings as the earmark for the person's time with children. I agree.

You sling major innuendos and assumptions about our personal lives and outcomes in our experiences. This is where I enjoyed a good laugh.

Sometimes we all flew, sometimes only the kids. Sometimes we drove-you get to enjoy a lot of things that way. Sometimes the kids lost in out-of-state tournaments and sometimes they won. They also made friends, especially when they played familiar faces at regionals and as ODP players, and even in out-of-state friendlies. We all had fun together and we still have fun today.

So why are you even posting?

Whilst St. Paul was able to do this, I can't, "suffer fools gladly".

Why are you even trying to explain your decisions on an anonymous forum?

If you had any confidence and no regrets about the decisions you have made and paid for , you would never ever elect rationalize them here and feel like you need to or must defend it on a toilet bowl forum such as this.

Just to be clear, if you want to keep it your business and your special fun time precious/sacred, keep it to yourself and relish your memories, because when you type on this site for others to read your peculiar vision of fun and intelligent spending it's very revealing and disturbing.

That's all.

True but that kool ade tastes so good.