Whenever they have a story of relevance to Mums, children and family life, the lovely Ben at 72point sends us a link to the data.  Last week, Ben sent us a story about how much money it costs to fund your teen through sporting hobbies.  With the Olympics is now only days away, this seemed like an interesting story to explore.

Munchkin has just started ballet.  She loves it.  In her show at the end of term she was very cute, if not particularly coordinated.  She only does ballet once a week, but it costs me around a fiver a session and if she continues this through the years, with kit, exams and no doubt more regular classes this could all get rather expensive.

Apparently the average parent will spend £3832.22 on their sporting child between the ages of 11 and 18.  The study was conducted by the pub restaurant chain Chef & Brewer and it polled 2,000 parents of children who take part in organised sport at least three times a week. If you break it down that is around £10 per week.  Though that is using 52 weeks in a year and most sporting classes break for the school holidays.

The article quotes Elaine Petch, mother of Olympic medal-winning gymnast Louis Smith, who says that most parents are willing to support their children in sports because “it keeps children fit and healthy, but secondly children who take part in team sports tend to have a wider circle of friends.” However, she also points out that allowing your child to do sports can take its toll on the parents too. “”The cost isn’t the only aspect to consider, many of these parents will work full-time and after a day’s work will have to pick kids up and drop them off at sports clubs. If you are doing this several times a week it will take its toll.””

The average cost may be £3832.22, but different sports will set you different amounts horse riding, for example costs an average of £7637 and parents will shell out around £6000 on go-karting from the age 11-18.  Swimming is a bit cheaper at £4106 from 11-18. The cheapest sport is also the most popular: football and it comes in at £2841.

With the Olympics just round the corner we should all spare a thought for the parents of those competing.  The figures quoted above are averages, so to have a child who becomes a world-class athlete you must have had to spend a lot more both in money and time to enable them to get so far.

So do your children do sports?  If so how much do you think you spend a year?  Do you think that sport is  of benefit to children and how much of your family’s time do you allow sports to take up?