I just bought my 14 year old a 300 dollar swim suit!

OMG...I had no idea activities had gotten so expensive since I was a kid. What activity is affordable now? That's the one I want to guide my three into!
Anything they are serious about is going to be expensive. There is a distinct difference between something a kid does just to get out of the house and something that is their passion and focus. Rec level sports kids want to dabble in are pretty cheap, but any type or competitive program is going to require a fair amount of time and money, plus you either need exceptional talent or time and money put into private training. Dance, cheer, volleyball, soccer, baseball, even track around here offer private training programs and the kids that play on select club teams or the most competitive high school teams utilize them.
 
Not allowed at all? Even for the swimmers who go to championship meets?

No one at our Tri-State Championships wore them last year. At our last USA meet no one wore them either. We have another this weekend so I will let you know
 
Finding affordable activities depends on where you live, interests etc. I found the YMCA to be a cheap way to try new sports for young kids without a long term commitment. Our city also has a recreation program that offers free to cheap seasonal sports. None of these are on a serious level but are great for kids looking for fun and fitness. Some sports can be done on a non competitive level such as dance and figure skating. They aren't the cheapest but are cheaper then being on a competitive team and can be just as fun for a child.

I've found Girl Scouts (only have girls) to be a really cheap non sports activity though it depends on the individual troop/service unit etc. Often music lessons through the school are free though you have the cost of the instrument. Another place to look at is the local public library. Also if you live near a museum it can be affordable to get a membership and take advantage of various museum activities that may be free throughout the year.
 


UPDATE-- Well the 300 dollar suit was worth it....they won the conference championship and her relay team came in first!
Here goes, I would say the team won due to the ability of the swimmers not the suit. We've been to hundreds of meets(our oldest is 21)and have seen girls win that were in less expensive suits. Our daughter swam with Leah Smith(she made the Olympic team this past summer)from Pittsburgh. Yes, she is in fast skin suits now but during her younger years she never wore them and still won. Congrats to your daughter and her team. Swimming is a tough sport and the kids are very devoted.
 
Anything they are serious about is going to be expensive. There is a distinct difference between something a kid does just to get out of the house and something that is their passion and focus. Rec level sports kids want to dabble in are pretty cheap, but any type or competitive program is going to require a fair amount of time and money, plus you either need exceptional talent or time and money put into private training. Dance, cheer, volleyball, soccer, baseball, even track around here offer private training programs and the kids that play on select club teams or the most competitive high school teams utilize them.

Not necessarily. The kid getting the college scholarship for baseball on my son's team is the one with passion and discipline and ability - but he has a single Dad for a parent where there has never been money. He played park and rec ball - not travelling - through middle school, joined the high school team, and plays VA ball in the Summer.

Our high school basketball team is not full of the white well off kids that make up 40% of the school - whose parents had them coached and had them on travelling teams in eighth grade, but full of the kids who have been playing pick up basketball - the kids from the part of town where darker skin and free lunches are common. There is an annual scream fest every year at basketball tryouts, when the parents who "invested" in basketball every year see their kids cut in favor of a bunch of black kids who don't quite know the real rules because they've never played organized ball.

The girl we sent to State for voice last year hadn't had a private lesson until the choir teacher started donating time in order to get her to State.

If a kid has the ability and the discipline, pro coaching and expensive equipment might push them a little farther. If they don't, you can throw money at it all you want and have kid who isn't very good.

Where expensive equipment is a requirement - its often more to keep the riff raff off the team instead of making the team better. Expensive soccer uniforms keep the players from having to play with the kid with a single Dad whose Mom took off and died of a drug overdose - in our case, its baseball and that kid is the one getting the athletic scholarship.
 
Here goes, I would say the team won due to the ability of the swimmers not the suit. We've been to hundreds of meets(our oldest is 21)and have seen girls win that were in less expensive suits. Our daughter swam with Leah Smith(she made the Olympic team this past summer)from Pittsburgh. Yes, she is in fast skin suits now but during her younger years she never wore them and still won. Congrats to your daughter and her team. Swimming is a tough sport and the kids are very devoted.
Yes, of course the superstars still win in regular suits. I've seen a local girl who is a phenom dominate in a regular tank and kick the butts of everyone else in tech suits. She's in college now and has been named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week more than once this season. She didn't need the tech suit for local swimming but she does wear it at the National level.

My DD has been in swimming for 13 years and I have to tell you the technical suits do work for her. Her times are faster in a tech suit. Of course, her times are also faster because of the training and hours of practice she puts in. The physical properties of the tech suit (the compression, the seam placement and the water "repellant" fabric) in conjunction with the mental properties of the tech suit (the girls feel special and "fast") make it a win-win for most swimmers.

As for the OP ... if her DD's team did not swim in tech suits they would have been at a disadvantage at that level of swimming. As you know, events are won by fractions of seconds and a tech suit can and does make a difference.
 


OMG...I had no idea activities had gotten so expensive since I was a kid. What activity is affordable now? That's the one I want to guide my three into!

The ones where you don't put your kids on the elite/travel/top team or group.
You can do wonderful, fun dance lessons and buy ballet and tap shoes from payless.
You can do summer swim team in a $50 bathing suit
You can go to the local Y for gymnastics classes once or twice a week.
You can play rec soccer with a volunteer coach and t-shirts.

Those are all *awesome* and wonderful and not crazy expensive. Some kids and families will want to take it up a level (or five) and that's when things get expensive and intense. There's no right or wrong answer, just make the decision for *your* family about what is the best use of time and money.
 
WOW! I will never complain about buying a helmet or bat again!
 
Not necessarily. The kid getting the college scholarship for baseball on my son's team is the one with passion and discipline and ability - but he has a single Dad for a parent where there has never been money. He played park and rec ball - not travelling - through middle school, joined the high school team, and plays VA ball in the Summer.

Our high school basketball team is not full of the white well off kids that make up 40% of the school - whose parents had them coached and had them on travelling teams in eighth grade, but full of the kids who have been playing pick up basketball - the kids from the part of town where darker skin and free lunches are common. There is an annual scream fest every year at basketball tryouts, when the parents who "invested" in basketball every year see their kids cut in favor of a bunch of black kids who don't quite know the real rules because they've never played organized ball.

The girl we sent to State for voice last year hadn't had a private lesson until the choir teacher started donating time in order to get her to State.

If a kid has the ability and the discipline, pro coaching and expensive equipment might push them a little farther. If they don't, you can throw money at it all you want and have kid who isn't very good.

Where expensive equipment is a requirement - its often more to keep the riff raff off the team instead of making the team better. Expensive soccer uniforms keep the players from having to play with the kid with a single Dad whose Mom took off and died of a drug overdose - in our case, its baseball and that kid is the one getting the athletic scholarship.
These kids are the exception rather than the rule. If you look at athletes playing on D1 college teams as a whole, you will find that the vast majority have been training outside of rec league/ high school practice the majority of their lives. You are right that no amount of training will make up for total lack of talent, but in the vast majority of cases you need both talent and proper training to make it. My husband worked in the world of D1 athletics for years and we know a LOT of people who are still there. Its just the way things are, for good or ill. Very few kids make it on raw talent alone. There are too many talented, well trained alternatives. The Peyton Mannings and Johnny Manziels of the world definitely outnumber kids without those advantages when it comes to the ranks of D1 collegiate athletics. The effect is more pronounced outside of football and basketball. For sports like soccer, volleyball, ect almost everyone that makes those teams funneled money into elite club sports because there was no school booster program to support quality training programs for them.
 
These kids are the exception rather than the rule. If you look at athletes playing on D1 college teams as a whole, you will find that the vast majority have been training outside of rec league/ high school practice the majority of their lives. You are right that no amount of training will make up for total lack of talent, but in the vast majority of cases you need both talent and proper training to make it. My husband worked in the world of D1 athletics for years and we know a LOT of people who are still there. Its just the way things are, for good or ill. Very few kids make it on raw talent alone. There are too many talented, well trained alternatives. The Peyton Mannings and Johnny Manziels of the world definitely outnumber kids without those advantages when it comes to the ranks of D1 collegiate athletics. The effect is more pronounced outside of football and basketball. For sports like soccer, volleyball, ect almost everyone that makes those teams funneled money into elite club sports because there was no school booster program to support quality training programs for them.

But the world of D1 athletics is VERY small. Smaller yet is the world of pro-athletes. It isn't like spending the money is going to get you the scholarship - and frankly, you won't know if it pans out until long after the money is spent. Your chances are small if you spend the money - and slightly smaller if you don't - because they were that small to being with.


If you have the money and your kid has the desire - and there is nothing you'd rather put money at than your kids activity (nothing - not college savings, not vacations, not retirement funds, not a new car, not a kitchen remodel) - its your money, spend it how you want. But its a shame that kids are feeling like they can't participate (and in some cases, can't participate) if they don't have parents willing to drop a lot of cash - parents that have other priorities - like making sure the family has health insurance. And its a shame that some parents are dropping this money in the hope of a scholarship - when saving would be a far better bet.
 
But the world of D1 athletics is VERY small. Smaller yet is the world of pro-athletes. It isn't like spending the money is going to get you the scholarship - and frankly, you won't know if it pans out until long after the money is spent. Your chances are small if you spend the money - and slightly smaller if you don't - because they were that small to being with.


If you have the money and your kid has the desire - and there is nothing you'd rather put money at than your kids activity (nothing - not college savings, not vacations, not retirement funds, not a new car, not a kitchen remodel) - its your money, spend it how you want. But its a shame that kids are feeling like they can't participate (and in some cases, can't participate) if they don't have parents willing to drop a lot of cash - parents that have other priorities - like making sure the family has health insurance. And its a shame that some parents are dropping this money in the hope of a scholarship - when saving would be a far better bet.
You are the one who brought up scholarship potential. D1 is just what I have direct experience with. Training programs don't just make a small difference. They GREATLY increase the odds.
 
UPDATE for us too! We went to a USA qualifier meet and there was only 1 girl that was wearing a skin suit. I was fully prepared to see tons and we didn't!
 
Kids sports are not cheap. My daughter plays softball for high school and was playing travel softball. Her bats are $300 each, about 1 every other year, her glove was $350. Travel softball costs about $3,000-$4,000 a year. I was a little disappointed she choose not to play travel this year, but she is a junior in high school and is concentrating on academics. Unfortunately almost two years ago she was hit in the head playing for the school and spent 2 days in ICU with bleeding on the brain. It was a struggle for her to get back to the same skill level after having to sit for a year. that took a lot of the fun out of it for her.
 
Hey, where do you buy competition leotards from? I'm considering getting this artisticgymnastics leotard for my dear daughter. How do you like it?
That's really cute! My daughter's gym orders them because they all wear the same on. I just pay them. So i'm not entirely sure, but they are GK leotards...
 
UPDATE for us too! We went to a USA qualifier meet and there was only 1 girl that was wearing a skin suit. I was fully prepared to see tons and we didn't!
I'm not quite sure what you mean by a "USA qualifier meet". My DD's swim team runs 3 USA meets where kids can qualify for championship meets every year but they are just regular everyday meets. Hardly anyone wears tech suits to those kinds of meets. I'm a USA Swimming official and worked a YMCA/USA meet last week and I only saw 2 girls with the low cost Tyr tech suits on.

My DD is swimming Wisconsin's USA Swimming regional meet next week. She'll be wearing an old tech suit because she's trying to qualify for Central Zone Speedos in the 200 free. She already has the 100 and 200 backstroke but she's pretty close to the 200 free too. I'll probably be buying her one last $100 tech suit for the end of her club swimming career :guilty:.
 
Update Again--the suit seems to be working it's magic....they swam sectionals this week and she made it to Districts in all four events. Now they have to practice this week in tights and doubled up suits (not the tech suits) to create drag....we'll see what happens this week-end! Pretty much every kid had a speed suit on at Districts...and some were wearing thin already.
 
My DD is swimming at her Regionals meet this weekend.

Rocking the crocs!

I would say about 40% of the girls were wearing tech suits and almost all the girls in the last two heats had tech suits.

37AAB3EF-CCA0-4669-B3CD-82182A898377_zps0hmt4iyt.jpg
 
Last edited:
EEEEEEK. Hope my daughter can learn to live with the enjoyment of a family rec centre pass and free outdoor activities! I'm fully prepared to offer her multitudes of options that don't involve this crazy kind of income loss.

I don't even want to think about how much money was wasted on my dance classes (took classical ballet and pointe for 5 years). I decided that dance was something I liked to do, but I didn't want to have an eating disorder or deal with the rampant sexual attitudes in the performing arts (sorry, you might BE a principal dancer, but you're 24 and I'm not... so go away and go stretch or something. Get your hand off my leg or I will kick you.) or deal with any competition. Probably at least a college degree's worth of cash, flushed right away...

If my child ends up being super-interested in something like that, that is what grandparents are for! ;) Right now all my child wants to do is become scuba-certified so she can swim in the aquariums at Disney. She heard about the opportunity when we were at EPCOT and since then, she wants to go swimming constantly. Good thing Grandma has a very pricey country club membership - we send the small one over to her when it's Swim Time!
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top