Kids and Their Activities: Horror (and not quite) Stories

Our travel/club/high school soccer/baseball was sometimes a real pain, especially in the spring where some years it rained all the time. But then your kids grows up, goes to college and doesn't play organized sports anymore. Then you really miss watching him play.

 

That part sucks, too.

 

You mentioned it in passing once or twice, but this is the Internet, so feel free to add a few sentences to your short game reports.

 

My son is very into his acting and based on what others are telling me (and my tainted glasses) he's got a talent for it. But my God does it get expensive if we want to dive in more. They wanted him to do a workshop in NYC which would run 3 grand for 10 days of winter break training and 3 more weekends after that.

 

Not a parent but be a little wary if your kid stays in scouts going into his senior year in high school.

This was three decades ago now but my troop was full of hearty party folk. Sure, we hiked a lot and learned something about tying knots but for every kid above 13, summer camp was spent in an agreeable alcoholic haze. You can't imagine how much booze you can smuggle up in a foot locker.

To drift back into the political, no wonder those little tykes got so riled up when Trump spoke. Half of them were probably higher than a kite.

 

StarBro18, the oldest of the StarSis brood, just graduated his high school (top-15 in the state academically) as co-valedictorian with a 4.4 GPA adjusted for AP college credits and a 99+ percentile SAT. He was involved in cross country, sailing, long range cycling, chess club, robotics/ STEM team. In the end he earned a 100% full ride, all expenses paid, room board and books, plus an on campus student aide job for walking around money, four year scholarship to his hometown B1G school. Due to his AP credits, he enters school as a first semester sophomore.

He could have played travel baseball or hoops for four years, I suppose, but he came out fine anyway.

It's great: in all the youth sports, the real gung ho parents are spending hundreds of thousands of bucks in the mythical hope some day of a college scholarship (which often turns out to be a partial ride).

StarSis and Hubby spent less on StarBro18s extracurriculars in 12 years than you could spend in one month on a top level travel team, and he ended up getting a Cadillac full ride better than any NCAA football or basketball scholie.

 

My son did Scouts and I had the same trepidation as you, but it wasn't too bad. I only had to camp with him a couple times and he did the minimum to get his Eagle. Even his project wasn't too labor intensive.

I'm pretty sure that Eagle helped him get into a top university and secure some scholarships.

On the other hand, there was more parent drama in Scouts than all the sports he tried combined (baseball, swimming, wrestling, high school tennis)

 

I did Cub Scouts up to Webelos.

But by that time, our family was into camping big time, and my camping skills left the Scouts in the dust. Camping and outdoors stuff with the Scouts seemed like Oscar Robertson playing playground hoops with a bunch of stiffs in black socks.

I mean, there's only so many times you should have to re-explain how to build a fire or tie a square knot. Or why it's a real good idea to establish your camp site a good little hike both upwind and upstream from any toilet facilities.

 

My mother was a pianist, played the organ at our church for like 30 years and taught numerous kids in our neighborhood -- including good friends of mine -- how to play piano. But none of her kids took it up, which is a failing I'd like to correct by learning to play.

My daughter, luckily, has little tolerance for bullshit wastes of time. If she's into something, she will commit, but within reason. She hated baseball and quit after a month. She's gotten really good at soccer, thanks in part to playing indoors in the winter with almost all boys. Her coach this spring said she should be playing travel soccer, and I wasn't gonna stand in her way. But when she found out the time commitment and travel involved, she wasn't interested. I mean, she's nine years old. She has plenty of time to get to Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000-hour barrier.

I do want her to learn an instrument though. Maybe piano.

 

Piano is the way to go as a first instrument. It is so foundational to understanding western music.
If she plays piano for a year or two and would like to take up another instrument, that is great.
That is my plan, anyway.

 

One of my nephews, who starts middle school this year, wants to join his school's football team. I hope he makes it.