Parents forced to dig deep for kids’ hobbies

From piano lessons to dance classes, parents here are spending an average of €840 per child on their hobbies, a survey has revealed.

Of course no survey can quantify the emotional trauma invested in supporting these after-school activities, but it did calculate that parents spend around 104 hours a year transporting their children to and from their chosen hobbies.

From budding Messis to trying to find the next Rory Gallagher, sports, drama, dance and music feature strongly in the list of most popular activities, according to the research conduced on behalf of high-street retailer Argos