Abby Connolly
Something that many first-time parents may not realize as their children get older is that certain extracurriculars, like sports, can be very expensive.
Many sports teams require players to travel, spend much time practicing, buy expensive equipment, etc. Kids on a competitive sports team can take a lot of time and money from their families, something not every parent is prepared for.
One woman is unsure what to do after her daughter started showing an interest in cheerleading, which requires a lot of time and money, which she’s not sure she can give.
She’s 35, and her 14-year-old daughter has been talking to her a lot about wanting to join the local cheerleading squad. Her daughter has become very passionate about cheer and started showing more confidence whenever she spoke of it.
“I’ve been supportive, of course, [but] the thing is, I didn’t know what all this entailed, both financially and time-wise, until the meeting,” she said.
“For context, I’m a single mother. I’ve never gotten any assistance or a dime from her father her entire life. Nonetheless, I kept finding better-paying jobs until I landed what I thought was a steady job for nine years. My company has been making major changes for the past few months, and needless to say, many of our tenured agents are being let go and replaced.”
While she does have enough money to afford her daughter’s cheerleading fees, she fears she won’t be financially secure for long due to all her company’s lay-offs.
Now, she’s keeping her eye out for jobs that would hopefully pay her just as much, but most of them require her to work evenings, which means she wouldn’t be around to take her daughter everywhere she needed to go for cheer.
Plus, while her daughter is very excited about cheer, she worries that she’s not as dedicated to actually performing the sport as she is talking about it.
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