Helping kids cope: Hit by weak economy, parents cut back on children's recreation

When Janee Kalikakis' mortgage-lending employer went out of business, her family of five mostly lived off savings and cut out all extras — except the kids' extracurriculars.

"For me, my kids are the most important thing," said Kalikakis, whose 11-, 16- and 17-year-old daughters are involved in karate, competitive dance and soccer, respectively. "I was not OK with giving that up for them."

Many other parents might find themselves struggling to find a way to keep kids' activities afloat as budgets are siphoned by rising fuel and food costs, or a job loss.

Fewer kids are signing up for youth sports this spring, according to Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation. The recreation center in Kearns saw dance, cheer, gymnastics, wrestling, karate and roller hockey enrollments drop 45 percent. The day care, on the other hand, is jam-packed, with a year-long waiting list.

"With prices going up, I can guess people are needing to make choices with any discretionary money they have," said David Young, the center's program manager and facilities director.

Seventy-eight percent of Utah adults say the United States is in a recession, according to a Dan Jones & Associates poll commissioned by the Deseret News and KSL-TV. The April 21-24 survey had a margin of error of 5 percent.

Just under half of the 404 Utah adults surveyed say they've cut back on leisure and nonessential items in the past year. Forty-three percent say they're spending about the same, and 8 percent said they are spending more on such items.

Parents are cutting back on youth activities.

"It's not drastic, but our numbers are down from a year ago," Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation spokesman Martin Jensen said. "The money people spend on recreation is discretionary spending. When times get tough, maybe they pick one sport for their children to participate in, rather than three or four as we usually see."

At Kearns, T-Ball participation dipped 10 percent from last spring, or from 200 to 180 kids. Soccer, which costs $36 for the season, dropped 23 percent, from 700 kids last spring to 540 this spring. Dance, cheerleading, gymnastics, wrestling, karate and roller hockey enrollment slipped from 194 to 106 children — a 45 percent plunge.

Youth program rolls haven't changed at the Dimple Dell Recreation Center in Sandy. But memberships have. Sales dipped 10 percent from first-quarter 2007 to first-quarter 2008, director Larry McKinney said. While cryptosporidium in the pools has helped decrease the number of visitors, more might be at play in the sales dip.

"I do think that could definitely be attributed to the economy," McKinney said. "People can't afford to spend $300 or $400 (on a year pass) in one chunk."

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