Kids’ hobbies prove a great expense

As a young scamp I loved extra curricular activities, begging my mum for new adventures and taking classes in all sorts, including drama, horse-riding, swimming, singing and piano.

So, what did I achieve?

Well, I am neither a famous actress nor a championship rider, the only thing I can remember how to play on the piano is “chopsticks” and despite years of lessons, I still most definitely cannot sing.

(I can however swim)

Hobbies are great though. Whether they lead to a career or not, it’s great for kids to get involved in activities outside school, keeping active and having fun doing things they enjoy. And who knows, there’s always a chance their childhood ambitions could lead to bigger things…

Having said this, these activities are costly and new research from Alliance and Leicester has revealed that many parents may be in for a shock when it comes to the additional costs of these extra curricular activities.

Young aspiring actors and sport stars are putting an increased amount of pressure on parent’s purse strings and those wanting their rising star to stand out from the crowd may not have planned for the costs involved

Alliance and Leicester have calculated that hobbies such as drama and sporting activities could now be costing parents in the UK a massive £1.7 billion every year.

Parents of acting hopefuls can expect to pay at least £10 a session for weekend performing arts classes, while the parents of aspiring dancers will be paying around £7 a class for tutoring in jazz and ballet. Football wannabes can cost their parents over £130 just to be kitted out, plus a further £575 a year for holiday membership to a sports and activity camp. Add to these the cost of petrol to transport your child to and from their activities, and the bills soon start mounting up.

(The figure of 1.7 billion is based on the assumption that one in three kids take part in BOTH drama and sporting activities, and that each of these ambitious scamps take their drama classes in central London. It assumes they are each kitted out in the latest design football shirt, shorts, shoes, shin pads, bag ball and even ‘Chelsea socks’, so to be fair it’s probably a bit of an overestimate, but the fact remains that hobbies can be pricey.)

The research suggests that only one in 20 are saving up specifically for child related expenses and parents who have not made financial provisions may soon feel the pinch.

Indeed, forward planning is the key to providing your child with as many opportunities as possible and being able to invest in their future. Saving a little cash regularly can soon add up into a lump sum which will make additional costs easier to meet and reduce the stress of funding your child’s activities. For example, putting just £50 from your monthly wage packet into a high interest savings account or ISA will add up to £600 a year, plus interest. If you want to give your child a financial boost when they turn 18, then a Child Trust Fund could help maximise your savings.

I think most parents would appreciate that taking part in extra curricular activities can be of great benefit to their child’s development and worth planning ahead for.

Much more alarming than these statistics, is the recent research by Halifax, which claims that 76% of children now own a mobile phone and 68% also own an ipod or MP3 player. With the average phone bill costing £8.38 a month and 40% of kids downloading an average of four songs per week from the internet, Halifax have calculated that parents are currently paying out a total “portable entertainment maintenance bill” of £381.52 a year per child! And that’s not including the cost of the equipment.

Now, is this worth it? I’m really not sure…

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   Sink your teeth into this…

Despite news of the credit crunch and talk of a global recession, it seems there is only one business that is fairy-ing well.

That’s right, the Tooth Fairy is proving to be one of the most successful business women of this year, and may even find herself in 2009’s Times’ Rich List. 

According to a survey, the generous little fairy, who once used to slip six pence pieces under the pillows of sleeping children who’d lost their milk teeth, now has a business worth millions of pounds. Definitely something Peter Jones wishes he’d invested in…

While parents roughly received 27p per tooth, their children are waking up to find an average of £1.05p waiting for them, according to savings experts, The Children’s Mutual. That’s more than a 500 per cent rise over 25 years.

It’s been calculated that youngsters today can profit from a total of £21 from their wobbly teeth – over 6 times what their parents would have got for theirs. For roughly one in twelve youngsters, losing 20 baby teeth between the ages of six and 11 could earn them more than £40.

And is it any wonder the averages are so high, when it’s reported that Wondermum and superior-being Angelina Jolie gives adopted son Maddox $50 for every tooth he loses, letting him spend the extremely generous payout on whatever he wants?

There is a silver-lining to this somewhat gappy tale however: children are being taught about how to look after their finances. The study found that seven in ten children talk about money and savings with their parents, 73 per cent have a piggy bank and 44 per cent of seven-year-olds play shopping games at home.

Although maybe not learning the true value of money, or about inflation rates, kids these days do seem to understand more about money matters. Only the other day did I witness a little girl, too small to reach the counter, trying to make a deposit into her Barclay’s account. She was probably saving the pound she’d received in exchange for a decaying little incisor…

As for Maddox Pitt/Jolie, it’s all very well giving the kid a fifty dollar bill for every tooth that “falls out”, but when he and his sisters start pulling all their little toothy-pegs out with pliers, I’m sure Angie will regret her “charitable” decision to give every child the same.

She’ll also be regretting not putting the money towards the dental treatment they’ll all need later on in life.

“Five for silver, and six for gold,” I wonder how magpies are getting on…