Facilitated by: Laura E. Riley (Caroline’s Mom)
Welcome to the parents’ corner of MySkatingMall.com! As the parent of a figure skater, you play a key role in your child’s chosen sport – of course, so does your pocketbook. If you are like me, you might find it difficult in today’s economy to finance “must have” fashion pieces, movie nights and slumber parties. Add in a sport that has a reputation of being “extremely expensive,” and you find yourself scouring the want-ads for a part-time job to offset the costs and keep your child(ren) skating. But if you are working two jobs to support the “habit” who is going to chauffeur your budding star to practices five, six or more times a week?
Being a figure skating parent is a challenge, a juggling act, and not without its sacrifices. For me, it’s a little easier because I LOVE SKATING! My daughter at age 5 is living my childhood dream – a dream that was cut short for me by the high cost of skating. I grew up and still live in the South, so I was a quad roller skater. Ice rinks were in short supply in the South in the 70’s and 80’s. Even today, only the larger metropolitan areas have ice rinks.
Fortunately, we live in Atlanta, which will soon be adding its seventh sheet of ice in a northern suburb. But outside Atlanta, skating clubs in Georgia are scarce. One of the families in the Atlanta Figure Skating Club had been making a 200-mile roundtrip between Macon, Georgia, and Atlanta five to six times a week for their daughter to ice skate! With the high gas prices, that is a rather hefty extra expense.
The “high cost” of skating to a family’s budget and time is inevitably a popular topic at my daughter’s home rink, the Marietta Ice Center (http://www.themicice.com). Through this blog on MySkatingMall, I would like for us to share our thoughts and advice on figure skating financing and other topics of interest to parents and all members of your figure skating family, including grandparents. (My mother-in-law is covering most of the costs of my daughter, Caroline’s next out-of-state competition, so I can’t leave them out as a valuable resourceJ).
I envision this blog as a virtual meeting place for ice skating parents outside the rink. As I said before, I love skating. The best part of my week is spent perched above the ice watching my daughter skate. The parents, coaches and families at the MIC have become some of my closest friends. We all share a common interest that entails helping our young skaters get the most out of their sport! Like any endeavor, it doesn’t come without a price.
What bothers me is when I hear parents sharing “horror” stories they have heard (or overheard) about the high price of skating without being properly informed. I often tell parents, “Breathe. Relax. You don’t have to pay up-front or sign a contract to pay thousands of dollars over a decade.” As a parent, I try to face it one expense at a time.
I recently was helping my best friend to make purchasing decisions on basic skating items for her daughter and granddaughter (yes, she has both a four-year-old daughter and granddaughter, and they both want to skate!). I realized just how much information is needed to make good, educated choices and thus avoid overspending.
In the Southern U.S., ice skating equipment and apparel stores are not on every corner. In fact, the one decent store we had in metro Atlanta recently closed. The Internet, of course, offers access to everything a skater needs. However, it can be a daunting undertaking for the beginning skater or parent to shop for supplies on the Web. Otherwise, we are at the mercy of the rink pro-shops, which are primarily focused on hockey and are very expensive.
This is why I am “almost” as big of a fan of MySkatingMall as I am of ice skating! Ryan has given us a tremendous opportunity to educate ourselves about the sport, save money, make money for our teams, and otherwise collectively join forces to keep our youngsters skating!
As skating families, we need to condition our pocketbooks, just like the little skater’s muscles — slow and steady, a little bit at a time. I try to encourage others to save as much money as possible on skating equipment and apparel, so they can put the money where it really counts — coaching and ice time!
Of course, this is just my opinion. I am very interested to hear yours and any advice or other tricks of the trade you may have for creative figure skating financing. Other skating parent topics are open for discussion and will be regularly introduced. As I told Ryan, certain topics seem to “resurface” amongst the sideline chatter during practice. So here is your opportunity to join in while staying warm (unless you’re logging in from the rink).
Happy Skating,
Laura, a.k.a. Caroline’s Mom
Tags: Fundraising for skating clubs, Fundraising for syncro teams, Fundraising for theater on ice teams, Myskatingmall.com blog, skating parents
This is a wonderful idea that you are starting this blog. I sure wish I had it 5 years ago when my daughter started ice skating and now going into the big world of higher level skating.
I actually wanted to know what skating would cost me 5, 10, 15 years into this as my daughter immediately wanted to follow her cousin into the Olympics world. I even went to the extreme of emailing champion skaters to find out…this way, as an accountant, I could budget for it for the long term instead of letting it sneak up and surprise you. I am not willing to go back to work for paying a sport expense so I do everything I can to cut expenses…for example, you can sell skates on ebay and get about 1/2 to 2/3 of what you pay if you keep your skates in good condition…tape those skates with skate tape…double tape in areas like the toes…I’ve sold skates over 8 months old that looked brand new even though my child fell over 500 times in them and ran into the boards and whatever. She even competed in taped boots and no one knew from a distance. There are so many things you can do to cut corners and get top level training.
My philosophy, it’s your choice how expensive you want to go…remember you are the customer and everything is negotiable.
Welcome, Laura, to the blog world! I think you’ll bring a valuable voice to the skating community!
I have been in the figure skating world for over thirty five years. I have seen parents struggle to keep their kids on the ice (including my own parents). Some parents have even sold their homes or taken on a second mortgage to finance the sport! Sadly, many parents have to make the difficult choice to leave the sport. My daughter skated and competed for five years. Leaving the sport was her own choice. Most of her dresses were second hand or given to me by her coach. Even her skates were rented until she reached the preliminary level. I saved money by buying used blades from other skating parents. My mom beaded her competition dresses and my parents paid for her lessons. I have recently returned to skating as an adult skater and try to buy second hand or borrow what I can from other skaters and coaches. I think this mall is great. It will help many skaters and parents to save money and keep skating. I enjoy listening to all the creative ways to keep it going. This is a great idea!! Even the skating clubs will benefit!
I think this blog site is a good idea. Parents of figure skaters need to read about the sport and try to keep themselves informed. My daughter started skating at 3 1/2 years and has skated non-stop with the exception of 6-9 months due to medical reasons. My daughter is barely 12 and is getting ready to test senior MIF, competes juvenile free-skate, and has just begun partnered ice dance. In retrospect she started a little too early, she could have “caught on ” easier at 5-6 years. She is bright, I just now realize that some skills are developmentally easier when the child is a little older. However, I feel parents should be cautious not to push too hard. We have known several other children through the years who had more talent and acquired skills easier-their parents then gave them” privates” 5 days a week. These children seem to burn out of the sport in 6-18 months. My daughters coach had a more relaxed attitude and I am thankful ! She had skating children of her own and I had a very wise outlook. Skating is an expensive sport, but so is competitive travel soccer, or baseball… The beauty of individual skating you can set your own schedule , choose your own competitions, etc. BALANCE. A good pair of well fitting skates (new or used) appropriate for the child’s level are better than the most expensive stiff boots. Used costumes are great.. make sure your child LOVES what you buy or they won’t wear it. Skating is a journey,not a race.