text: Some popular activities are dance, martial arts, sports, and music. Which are all VERY expensive. They are great extracurricular activities to do, but so expensive, and not all parents can afford them. For dance, costumes are at least $100, dance shoes vary on quality, but are usually expensive, dance wear is about $30-$50 per piece, and makeup, lots and lots of makeup. Plus, you usually have to know how to sew, and if you don't already, you might have to add the expense of sewing classes in there. See how they all add up? That's about $230 for just costumes, dance wear and shoes. Let's say your parent is a teacher, the average teacher makes $65,000 per year which isn't that much. Some even make $35,000 per year, even less. And to have school expenses, plus that, that's a huge chunk of your parent's paycheck. Some parents have to use that money to pay rent or mortgage, heating bills, water bills, electricity bills, and extra things like clothes, and food. That doesn't give them that much of a flexible amount to spend. Some kids prefer to save their parent's money, plus if they dont want to take one, that's even more unfair.