Spending money on kids

[Ben Long]

A thought on home economics. I am currently hosting my 11 year old nephew and a friend for the weekend. For his birthday, he wanted to go to a local 'fun park." I coughed up $100 and we did the maze, bumper boats, go-carts, mini-golf in the sweltering heat. Fun enough at the time but everyone came home hot and grouchy and "been there/done that". Compared to the day before when we set a crawdad trap, grabbed some old Zebco gear, and paddled the canoe in a local lake and caught little perch all day. (Plus a dozen crawdads.) All it cost me was the sacrifice of a bratwurst as crawdad bait, as the canoe and gear were just laying around anyway. They came back from fishing jazzed for more. Had to peel them off the lake. As my nephew said "Before today I never touched a fish, and now I can't get enough of it." Lesson: Save money. Take a kid fishing.

 

[D_Walt]

Yes, the little buggers can get expensive. My 13 yo son has been wade fishing the river about an hour from our house with me since he was 6 or 7 years old. Same place I started fishing with my dad almost 40 years ago. It’s cheap, fun and always have some sort of memorable experience. A little fuel plus sodas and honey buns on the way home is a bargain. A much better value than say, the $300+ I spent for our family of four to go bowling and pizza on Saturday night.

 

[Nameless Range]

I have 3 kids, and have spent a whole lotta dough on the stupid. Went to the fair last week and dropped $150 on rides and crappy food.
It is 100% true though, that in my experience playing in water supersedes all the rides, the parks, the movies, etc. They don't even need a fishing pole - just their underwear and a creek. I spend multiple evening a week every summer doing just this. It's damn-near free and my boys have so much more fun than they do at all the other stuff, and they never want to leave, and it feels really good to say ok to "15 more minutes" half a dozen times.

 

[Irrelevant]

Definitely. There's very few things that beat freedom on the water to just mess around at that age.

 

[MNElkNut]

I like to spend money on stuff so that my kids enjoy the outdoors. Instead of dropping that $150++ at the fair or amusement park, I would rather get them a quality pair of hunting pants or boots or coat or whatever. That way, when they are in the outdoors, they are comfortable. no easier way to turn a kid off to outdoors than have them be miserable. Obviously you start slowly, but it is scalable as they get more experience in the outdoors.

 

[Schaaf]

Type 2 fun > type 1 fun.

Even for kids.

 

[QuazyQuinton]

It seems to me that you all are doing the Dad thing right, also. If you share what you love (instead of hoarding that time for yourself), most kids will pick up on that and enjoy it along with you.

QQ

 

[Irrelevant]

It seems to me that you all are doing the Dad thing right, also. If you share what you love (instead of hoarding that time for yourself), most kids will pick up on that and enjoy it along with you.

QQ

or not...




But misery does love company... LOL

 

[JEL]

My grown kids talk about the camping/swimming/fishing/hunting memories way more than any of the other stuff.

 

[Stocker]

My wife gets mad at me when I say this. Kids are a massive expense and a major inconvenience. I generally say that when there’s people we know that get upset that they can’t find a babysitter so they can go party on the weekends or something.

As big as an expense an inconvenience as they are we chose them. I’d much rather spend $100 doing something with them than going to a bar. Almost everything we do together there’s something memorable or comical that comes out of it. My wife and I have drug our kids with us basically since they were born almost everywhere we’ve gone. It’s been a huge pain in the butt, but at the end of the day it was type 2 fun and totally worth it.


I’ve been having a debate with my wife about taking my 10yo son elk hunting with me this year. I just think 7 days of trekking around the mountains may be a little much for him yet. It would be a massive inconvenience for me to do that, but the enjoyment I’d get taking him trumps the chance that taking him prevents me from filling a tag.


If you see a 10yo dragging a guy up a mountain you’ll know I took him along.

 

[Deleted member 52098]

or not...
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But misery does love company... LOL

this made me think of this photo I got of my daughter a second after I told her she had to come snowshoeing with us and another family



But then comes a whole other day and they are loving stuff

 

[homers]

Quality time together is more important than the activity or the cost.

 

[seeth07]

My wife gets mad at me when I say this. Kids are a massive expense and a major inconvenience. I generally say that when there’s people we know that get upset that they can’t find a babysitter so they can go party on the weekends or something.

As big as an expense an inconvenience as they are we chose them. I’d much rather spend $100 doing something with them than going to a bar. Almost everything we do together there’s something memorable or comical that comes out of it. My wife and I have drug our kids with us basically since they were born almost everywhere we’ve gone. It’s been a huge pain in the butt, but at the end of the day it was type 2 fun and totally worth it.


I’ve been having a debate with my wife about taking my 10yo son elk hunting with me this year. I just think 7 days of trekking around the mountains may be a little much for him yet. It would be a massive inconvenience for me to do that, but the enjoyment I’d get taking him trumps the chance that taking him prevents me from filling a tag.


If you see a 10yo dragging a guy up a mountain you’ll know I took him along.

10yo or not, you know deep down that your odds aren't changing much

 

[2rocky]

I've gravitated towards Experiences rather than Things for my kids. I think I did something right since my three daughters went camping together last month and my middle daughter left that trip to do a solo road trip to Canada.

I'll never forget seven Eight years ago setting up a tent at Lamoille canyon in the dark and seeing the wonder in their eyes as they came out of the tent in the morning light.

 

[shrapnel]

30 years ago I was doing the same thing with my son, now he shares this with his son…

 

[BAKPAKR]

Last fall, my wife got Garth Brooks tickets for a show over Memorial Day weekend in Las Vegas. Since we had to travel clear to Vegas, we decided to make a week of it and went to Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks, too. While at GCNP, my 13 year old and I hiked to Phantom Ranch and back. On our way home, my wife asked my daughter what her favorite part of the trip was. When she said it was the hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, my wife was clearly taken aback. I, on the other hand, was pretty proud of the girl (despite the fact that she kicked my butt on the hike out).

 

[kansasdad]

@Ben Long

Ive read and reread your one simple paragraph thread starter, trying to discern how your 200+ word essay has created such a powerful feeling of deep enjoyment, and connection to hundreds of kid-time memories for me. Based on the reaction score, you’ve hit a home run for others as well.

Wonderful wordsmithing on your part.

Thanks for the memories

 

[Buckskinbob]

I'm hoping she never finds out those other places exist, we have way to much fun outdoors. For the price of gas and a bug juice we can go all day.

 

[hank4elk]

Got a rare email thanks from a niece yesterday. Actually both of the twins chimed in.
45 Sunday, successful working moms.
It seems when asked by mom of a favorite memory of youth, they both pulled out pictures in their wallets/purses of fishing with me as 6 year olds in the Sierra's.
Little trout, huge smiles.
Helen then said me teaching her to surf ,fish, hike formed her life.
Rachael then mentioned she was the one near the beach now and surfing .

My sister sent me a text last night.
See what you started?
Then pictures of their kids. Her grand kids.
Fishing, hiking and learning to surf from the moms.

Uncle Hank gets a thanks. Wow. Rare indeed.

 

[BRI]

Good thread! I used to take my son out with me fairly frequently up until 7 until one day I pushed him a little too hard trying to get him to walk just a little too far. That was the last day he expressed any interest in outdoor activity in his youth. It was totally my fault and not one of my finer moments as a father. He's now 28, a fly fishing guide and, though doesn't hunt, spends more days out in the field than me. This year, he decided to take hunter safety and buy his first big game license. To say I'm excited for this fall is an understatement.