The Price of Karate

My son is pretty tiny for his age.  He is on the short side and skinny.  This is just how boys in my family start out.  Once they hit puberty, however, they grow a lot.  I don't have any male cousins or uncles under six feet tall.  I think the tallest once is 6'6".

My son has been having trouble with some boys at school lately, so I enrolled him in an introductory class at a local taekwondo academy that I am completely in love with.  The teachers are all highly qualified and it has a high quality curriculum.  However, the prices are very high.

I am a stay-at-home mom that is pursing my BA so that I can get a good job and my hubby works part time in a warehouse.  We have enough to get by, but we are far from rich.  The Black Belt program there runs $200 per month, plus a processing fee.  Tournaments and testing come with even more fees.  $200 is the price of a car payment!  It is just more than we can afford right now.  I can probably only afford 1/4 of that price.  That is the basic program, too.

My son took it well that it is just too expensive for right now, but I was near tears throughout his practice.  He has grown so much and has gained confidence while being there.  It just breaks my heart that I can't provide this for him.  I'm probably more attached to this program than he is, though.

He's also the type of kid that loves variety, though.  Even if we could afford it, that would be all that he would be able to do.  My kids play sports pretty much all year long and play a variety of sports.  He played basketball over the winter, both kids are in baseball right now, they will do soccer over the summer, and he says that he wants to try football this fall.

My parents put my sisters and I in a couple of classes through the city's Parks and Recreation program, but couldn't afford it as we got older.  I know that when my kids get older, we'll have to cut back to 1 or 2 sports per year, but I love that they have opportunities that I never had.

I am looking into small karate studios that would be more affordable.  I just hope that they will be just as knowledgeable and that my son will enjoy it as much.

Thanks for reading!

 ~Vanessa