Is it worth it?....opinions needed

[M23K's]

DD's having fun and doing well with the switch but I started thinking about the financial cost and I was blown away. I knew it was expensive because we've had to pay for it in the past but the new gym is 25 miles away and when I figured the cost of gas for a year I was shocked. I can't stay 4 hrs/3x a week so I drop her off, go home and then travel back to get her for a total of 100 miles. I calculated gas for 250 miles each week because I probably could stay most Saturdays to help on gas.

Here's what I came up with:

Tuition:
$210/mo....$2520/yr

Leos/Warm-ups/Etc:
$400/yr

Booster Fees:
$800/yr

Gas ($3.50/gal for 50 weeks):
$2575/yr

Grand Total:
$6295/yr

That comes to an average of about $525/mo!!! That's crazy!!! That doesn't even include meets where we we have to get a hotel room.

Could we swing it? Yes Is it wise? I'm not so sure

[Livinatthegym]

Tough call, and sadly, not one anybody else can make for you. Here are some things to think about.

Does your child have other interests? Can you keep her busy and happy in other activities or at another, closer gym.

What else would you do with the money? We probably would have put the gym money into other activities for the kids and more/better vacations. Given that we wouldn't have used it for any significant lifestyle changes, we decided gym was worth it. However, with dd1 approaching driving age, we did tell her in no uncertain terms that there would be NO MONEY for a third car while she stayed in gym. It wasn't a threat or an enticement to get her to quit. It was just a financial reality.

What benefits do you see in remaining in the gym? There are many, but could you get the same benefits eslewhere?

How important is your time? You'll be spending a lot of time in the car and sitting at the gym. Should/Could you be spending the time with your other children? working?

At what point can't you afford it? If gas goes back down, it probably won't stay down long.

[bogwoppit]

Gymnastics, like most sports, is expensive. You have to weigh up the negatives and positives of participation, both financially and family wise.

We too drive a lot for gym, actually we drive a lot for everything. We drive to the town where or gym is at least 10 times a week, the school is in the same town. It is at least a 35 minute drive one way. Hubby works 90 minutes away from home and stays in town one night a week. Nearest groceries are 20 minutes away right next to the nearest gas station!

Our gym fees are also high, compared to city clubs, as we are in a small gym with high running costs. Also the price of country living. But the trade of is I know every girl on team and their parents, every coach knows every kids. One big happy bilingual family.

The girls do sleepaway gym camp and also summer training at their gym, add to that comp leo's and warm ups, hotels and meals for comps. Plus training suits, also never ending physio for oldest girl, ice packs, supports, grips, wrist bands, hair elastics (those just dissapear like socks in a washer!)

Girls compete in two different systems, therefore meets just about every weekend, most of them very early and very far away, this means a ton more of gas, hotels, meals, ice cream afterwords when we don't get anything. Not to mention that we are a family divided, physically that is, emotionally we make it work, but Dad stays home with whatever kids are there and I go off to the meets.

My girls don't even train a lot (8-12 hours a week), but we do live in the country and therefore everything is a trade off.

Only you can decide if gym is worth the cost, financially and emtotionally.

For us, gym has given our girls a great set of friends, some awesome adult/teen role models, something to do when it is -40 for the thrid week in a row!!! They have learned to be organised, determined and self disciplined. They love gym, we love what it gives them in terms of health, strength, self esteem and happiness.

It is a huge amount of money, in fact I try not to work out how much. After 8 years of gymnastics I would only stop for financial reasons if we simply had no other choice.

What else would she do if she didn't have gym? For us their are few choices, amybe you have less expensive alternatives, but all activities tend to cost about the same hourly, really the only thing you could save on is gas money, if you could find an activity close to home that would give her some of the same benefits that gym does.

Parenting and balancing family life is often a real challenge, good luck with this one. I feel for you and I totally empathize. My whole family could take a lovely vacation on our yearly gymnastics expenditure!

[nettyinpa]

I try not to think about the cost of gymnastics. I think I'd cry if I did!

Do you have to drive back home every time? Are there errands you could run while she's in the gym? Or work you could do while waiting? Have you looked into the possiblity of carpooling with another gymnast? That's what I do in the summer. I drop dd off at her teammate's house and she goes to the gym from there. I then pick her up in the afternoon at their house. In turn, we've had her sleep-over at our house a lot and I also take her home from practice during the school year.

Just a suggestion. If she wasn't in gymnastics, she'd probably be doing a different sport or activity that would cost you a lot, too. Maybe not as much as gym, but, nothing is cheap anymore! Good luck!

[melmonette]

I try not to think about gymnastics costs either... However, I was near the baby section at Sams the other day and well diapers are like 45 bucks a box... I am like geezzz.. I always like to say if we still had babies we would be forking that money out in diapers that we just throw in the trash. At least with channeling the diaper money to sports, they get something out of it. I know it is like comparing apple to oranges but makes sense in a way... If they were babies, it would be all the baby stuff that costs 1000s a year and now it is sports...
Gas on the other hand is making me sick... I seriously cannot take another unneccessary 10 cent weekly per gallon increase. Our gas prices have gone up from 3.17 two weeks ago to 3.45 now and I am sure that will be 3.55 next week. When is it going to stop... It makes me wish, we had horses and wagons, lol.

[M23K's]

Thank you for the input. The shock had started to wear off a liitle bit then yesterday afternoon gas went up to #3.70/gal. Luckily I had filled my car up earlier in the day but even then it was $81 (my gas light was on).

My husband and I had a long talk about it last night. 6 months ago, when we decided to let her work back up to level 5, he was the one concerned about money but he's let all that go now and feels like if that's what his baby wants, that's what his baby's going to get. So gym it is!!

A major deciding factor was that last year when she quit, it was because she was 'beat down' emotionally. We would love for her to have a positive experience this year and if she decides to quit after this season we want it to be because she doesn't want to do it anymore, not because of a negative gym situation.

Thanks again!!

[Livinatthegym]

Saw gas prices shoot up again and thought of your post.

Ordinarily, when it comes to my kids' activities, I'm a "right now" kind of gal (don't plan beyond this season). However, another thing to consider is the future. This sport never gets less expensive. The next level brings a tuition increase, another day of practice with another trip to the gym, meets that are further away (by optionals, you should plan on a "fly" meet every year).

If you see yourself not being able to stomach the increases at some point, you may want to consider activity shopping now. I'd have hated to pull my kids out right before optionals--that's just when they start to get good. Yes, other activities cost money, too, but this one is extra pricey.

[flippymonkeysmom]

I try not to think about the overall cost either. Of course my hubby is at a car dealership as I type looking into trading our suv in for a little car that gets better mileage. Last year I have my dd1 in gymnastics and dd2 was doing competition cheerleading which is just as expensive. When dd2 decided not to cheer anymore and play soccer again I definitely was doing happy dances.

Is the gymnastics worth it? For my dd, I think it is. I look at what it has given her in terms of confidence, self discipline, etc - and you can't put a price tag on that (jeez that sounds like one of those commercials, lol).

[gym law mom]

M23K--Have you checked with the gym about a part time job? I know many gyms hire parents to work the desk, help set up birthday parties etc. in exchange for a decrease in tuition. Since she's there for 4 hours, you might be able to work the desk etc. while dd is practicing.

I don't think there are any simple answers. When we switched gyms, we more than doubled our drive time(still not horrible), but our current gym has a lower tuition(btw--$210 is pretty low) and the booster club pays for all travel/meets etc. for gymmie as long as we work bingo 1 night/month. We also don't have to buy warm ups. The booster club buys them and we give them a $25 cleaning fee when they are checked out. If they are in good shape when returned then the check is torn up.

We have 1 girl who has about a 75 min drive each way. Her mom usually stays and has an ed background. Asked the gym if she could offer some tutoring nights she is there and they said ok. You might just want to think of something to do to offset all those drives back/forth. Not only does it eat up gas, but puts extra wear/tear on the car.

[Panda-girl's Mom]

I know the cost of gas is ridiculous, fortuantly my daughters level meet season is over. Before when gas was only a little over $3.00 we were traveling 3 hours to meets so it was around $100.00 just in gas. I think you either have to makeup your mind if you are going to have your daughter compete in a private gym it's going to be expensive and you might have to make sacrifices for this. Luckily for me their is a nursing shortages so I frequently pick up overtime when I can. I would feel terrible if I had to have my daughter quit due to finances but she could do gymnastics at the YMCA or the city program. I am sure in time she would adjust and forgive me. Alot of my friends outside of gymnastics think the cost is crazy but as long as my daughter is happy and I can afford it I will let her continue.