So my 8th grader (13.5yo) says to me last night that he wants to go to High School in California to play baseball and football because they are more competitive out there. Anyone want a teenager - I won't even charge, I promise!
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Tell him to just wait another year. He will be 14 competing against 18 year olds. That might change his mind.
Ha, what makes you think I want him to change his mind? I am begging someone to take him 
At least until he is out of these teenage years....
Sorry I live in warm Sunny Ohio. Otherwise I would be HAPPY to help out. 
Sure he would not be interested. You could tell him it is very eastern California. Or there is always this place.
HaHaHa! I hear YA!
I felt like I needed eyes in the back of my head, sleep with 1 eye open, & hire a few "spies"! Wait till he's driving & dating...then get a script for blood pressure meds!...
Just a huge "adventurer" & has matured into an ultra responsible Gentleman. Turned into my Super Man in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Aug 2017.
So, keep the faith! He'll be alright, alright alright!
What's his velo?
His velo is only low 70's (back in baseball season) but he not really a pitcher - he hasn't developed many different pitches. He is a hitter. I think the best exit velo was 87 but that was back in feb or so (he was 12 years 10 mos at the time) but was using a composite bat.
Too late. I wish you had asked me last year. We left CA for NY (crazy I know). Otherwise, you could have had him playing in a league that produced two of the three top HR hitters in college baseball last season.
Not that he will know or care, but the cost of living in CA is outrageous. Maybe a free ride later down the road, but even that will only go so far.
Coastline posted:Not that he will know or care, but the cost of living in CA is outrageous. Maybe a free ride later down the road, but even that will only go so far.
Tell me about it. Son is a freshman at CSUN. He shares a house with 6 other players. Rent is $3650/mo and utilities are running north of $2k/mo.
roothog66 posted:Coastline posted:Not that he will know or care, but the cost of living in CA is outrageous. Maybe a free ride later down the road, but even that will only go so far.
Tell me about it. Son is a freshman at CSUN. He shares a house with 6 other players. Rent is $3650/mo and utilities are running north of $2k/mo.
Wait, what? How could their utilities be $2K/month? Are you sure one of those kids isn't running an urban farm of some sort, with grow lights and whatnot?
Agree.
Should be more like $700-$800 absolute max.
Wow, that is crazy
He probably wants to go there because weed is legal there
He better not even know what that is!!!
Really? I graduated and just moved out of living next to CSUN. Rent was getting crazy and I saved enough to buy a home (also $ out of control). Do you happen to know a Tampkin that is playing for CSUN? His dad and I have worked together and he tells me his son is sharing a place with other teammates.
Coastline posted:Really? I graduated and just moved out of living next to CSUN. Rent was getting crazy and I saved enough to buy a home (also $ out of control). Do you happen to know a Tampkin that is playing for CSUN? His dad and I have worked together and he tells me his son is sharing a place with other teammates.
I do. Sent you a private message.
Ugh. Spoke to my son last night and he admitted that he never sees the utility bills. One of the guys just collects for the utilities and tells them each what they owe. Since it wasn't my money and was coming out of his scholarship money, I was letting him handle it. However, he also admitted to me that he only has $350 left in the bank and will need to pay January rent and utilities.
We've been throwing $300/mo into his account for extra money, but now I'll have to cover January rent for him. I know, we've been getting off cheap as hell. His bank statements have been coming to the house and I haven't opened them, but last night took a look at his October statement and I immediately see where the problem is.
In October alone, he spent $722 on fast food - In-n-out, Panda Express, and Jack-in-the-box mainly. That diet is bad enough, but most of the charges show he used Ubereats or Grubhub. Jsus. He lives less than half a mile from those joints and grocery stores and WalMart. He has a full kitchen at his disposal. SMH. I made him pay the utilities ($230) from his money (but told him don't pay a dime until you see the bills). So, he gets to live the next three weeks until he comes home for Christmas on $70. At least he'll get a small taste of what real college students go through.
He's not alone. My elder, non-baseball son is at UCSB and it's amazing to see how poorly and expensively most kids there eat. Putting ours on a tight budget and forcing him to learn how to shop, cook, and eat healthy may be the best parenting decision we ever made. I think he's pretty proud of it too.
Not to pick at a scab but $230 x 7 = $1,610.
When we left NoCal (Bay area suburb - cost very comparable to LA area) our utilities for a family of 4 in an approx 2,000 sq ft house were:
Gas & electric: $250 on the coldest month of the year. Otherwise more like $175.
Water/sewer: $150 (w pool and irrigation)
Internet + Cable: $200 (fairly high end package)
Trash: $100
So $700 tops. I'm assuming cell phone is on your plan and there would be no gardener or pool service.
JCG posted:He's not alone. My elder, non-baseball son is at UCSB and it's amazing to see how poorly and expensively most kids there eat. Putting ours on a tight budget and forcing him to learn how to shop, cook, and eat healthy may be the best parenting decision we ever made. I think he's pretty proud of it too.
Not to pick at a scab but $230 x 7 = $1,610.When we left NoCal (Bay area suburb - cost very comparable to LA area) our utilities for a family of 4 in an approx 2,000 sq ft house were:
Gas & electric: $250 on the coldest month of the year. Otherwise more like $175.
Water/sewer: $150 (w pool and irrigation)
Internet + Cable: $200 (fairly high end package)
Trash: $100
So $700 tops. I'm assuming cell phone is on your plan and there would be no gardener or pool service.
Yeah, but I would assume this month's bill is for October or November which should be lower on electricity at least. They do have a pool, btw and he made the argument to me that they pay for pool cleaning. However, I looked at his rental contract and it specifically included that the landlord pays for that. The only thing I can think of is that these kids are stupid, have a water pipe leaking or broken and are simply paying the bill without questioning why it's so high...or someone's scamming six other kids who don't have the life skills to question the bill.
The water companies send you lots of alerts in that case, and even come out and bang on your door. CA is a drought state.
I'll take door number two, Monty.
roothog66 posted:Ugh. Spoke to my son last night and he admitted that he never sees the utility bills. One of the guys just collects for the utilities and tells them each what they owe. Since it wasn't my money and was coming out of his scholarship money, I was letting him handle it. However, he also admitted to me that he only has $350 left in the bank and will need to pay January rent and utilities.
We've been throwing $300/mo into his account for extra money, but now I'll have to cover January rent for him. I know, we've been getting off cheap as hell. His bank statements have been coming to the house and I haven't opened them, but last night took a look at his October statement and I immediately see where the problem is.
In October alone, he spent $722 on fast food - In-n-out, Panda Express, and Jack-in-the-box mainly. That diet is bad enough, but most of the charges show he used Ubereats or Grubhub. Jsus. He lives less than half a mile from those joints and grocery stores and WalMart. He has a full kitchen at his disposal. SMH. I made him pay the utilities ($230) from his money (but told him don't pay a dime until you see the bills). So, he gets to live the next three weeks until he comes home for Christmas on $70. At least he'll get a small taste of what real college students go through.
Hahaha... love it when we get blindsided by the next round of kid/teen challenges, just when we think we are moving past most of them. We had some of the same things come up one year after transfer from JC but fortunately, we knew things were going to be tight so we happened to be monitoring the bank activities pretty closely at the time.
We knew things were going to be tight because ... Where we screwed up was having some stupid notion that the school would come through with housing that wasn't crazy through the roof. Turns out school housing was over-booked with a long waiting list and coach had no leverage. San Francisco rent for a very plain 2-bedroom apartment (with five players) was $3850 and that was three or four years ago. I'm sure, now, it's north of $4K.
So, Dadof3, you may still have several years of begging in front of you 
We live and learn with off campus housing expenses. My son's sophomore year he and 2 teammates rented an old house with gas heat. The first cold month they racked up a $700 bill. Most of that was probably from setting the thermostat at a toasty warm level, leaving doors or windows open, and a drafty old house with zero insulation . We parents quickly put a stop to that by limiting the amount of the bill we would pay. Amazing how much the bill dropped after that.
Unbelievably, we repeated the whole process with the electric bill once they started using air conditioning. We love our boys, but they can be thick-headed at times.
Dadof3 posted:He better not even know what that is!!!
No need to worry unless you hear reggae music from his room.