I'm not talking about having just one kid. I have three kids, and I am not going to spend that much time with one child, and leave my other two out. They deserve the same time spent with each, not just a monopoly of one child. Trust me, this causes issues with your children, my wife sees that problem in school every day. To me it is not worth it to have one sport/one activity dominate my/my childs schedule so completely. Soccer is fun, don't get me wrong, but it is still a game. I am sure that if you have one child, it is worth it then to spend that much time with them.
As for the college thing...how many full ride scholorships do you think there actually are per school. Not as many as you would think. If you took that money that you spent for a high level club team and invested it every year, you would have a lot more money than you think you would. It usually costs 5K-10K to travel, pay for the club, vacation time away from your job, other fees, top level equipment, etc.... a year. If your child plays for 10 years, that is at least 50K-100K not including compounding interest or other investment opportunities. (if you do the math, even on the lower end, you can just about pay for college without the scholarship....and God forbid if your child actually studied and got good grades, they actually do get scholarship money for beign smart and providing something productive to society...rather than the typical all about me generation) I always think it is funny how many people think that their child is the next best thing. I can for a fact tell you that most people's children are not that. You can tell the players that are special out there, especially when I am refereeing an academy game....there are only a handful of players on each team that reach this pinnical. I beleive that there are only 8 Full ride scholarships per Division 1 NCAA soccer team. How many schools are there per state, and do you really think your child is going to fall into this category? Just don't go into soccer thinking that your son/daughter is going to get a full ride scholarship to attend college, your money would be better spent elsewhere.
