Parents discuss why rich parents spend thousands of dollars annually on their children's sports teams: 'If you're wealthy then $20K is a small price to pay'

If you didn't grow up doing expensive travel sports, you probably underestimate how much it sets families back. The average extracurricular activity is a couple of hundred dollars a semester. Sure, spending $300 so your kid can play a puppy in 101 Dalmatians The Musical might sound like an exorbitant price to some families, but a lot of families can fit that into their budget without a problem. However, travel sports require that you pay for the season, constantly purchase new equipment, and cover the travel expenses. It can set a family back by up to five figures, which is not an excellent investment if you think $10,000 is a lot of money. How many of these kids on these travel teams make it to the NBA or the MLB? Is that the goal of spending all this money —to make it back and then some with multi-million-dollar sports contracts?

Frugal people took to Reddit to answer this question. Why do parents spend all this money on their kids' athletic extracurricular activities? Why is there not a middle ground between playing baseball in your backyard with your cousins and flying all over the country to play it before you're even in high school?
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How are wealthy people so easily manipulated into spending millions on the youth sports industry?

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