Did you force your children to take out student loans so you can hobby ?

Congrats...You take the cake...Might be the dumbest question of All-Time!!

Well, I'm not rolling in dough.  Kids qualify for Fin Aid.  Always managed to come up with the parent's share.  
I don't hobby often.  Only play with discretionary money.  
Children paid for grad school themselves...  yes, they took out loans.

gottheTshirt-Sounds fair to me. I don't think parents have to be responsible for GRAD school. After all 'the kids' have to start being responsible sometime!

Dixie is correct, that is a somewhat stupid question.

WOW...NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT! Thanks

To the folks with common sense not hobby at the expense of their children it is a dumb question. I have to wonder because I saw a post about a guy dipping into his 401k hobby.

Sounds like an addiction then... Like gambling.. No one should be in over their head ( no pun intended ) for the sole purpose of hobbying.. NEVER!!!

Hmmmm.  The "children" would be 18+ and taking out loans of their own free will.  And I say that as someone who paid her own way through college, and still has substantial loans to show for it.

Yes I have kids in college. A few years before they went I cut back a lot on the hobby so my kids would not have to take out loans for college.

Not only did I not pay for college for the kids but I made them apply for student loans and then stole the money for them to use for hobbying!

Seriously...if hobbyng is that big a part of your financial profile then you shoudl quit.  I just "wrote the check" for my first tuiton payment and did just the opposite of what you ask...I am taking a sabatical from hobbying as a result.

As a parent I  contribute my amount. The colleges and federal aid expect children to work legitimate jobs every summer where you can make between $2000-$6000 in a summer depending on the job.

A few years before I filled out the financial aid application I raised my 401K contribution, bought car to get rid of assets to qualify for more aid.

You plan ahead. Should have set-up a 529 plan. You don't pay state taxes for contribution for the year. You don't pay state or federal taxes when take out and use it for education.

If your dumb ass kid didn't got to college, you can take the money, but pay a 10% penalty.

It is all about planning and budgeting and not getting taken in by smart sales men selling you stuff you don't really use from Car Insurance to extended service contracts on Golf Clubs. Biggest business farce these days. You but BlueRay palyer for $150 and get an extended service contract for $30 for 3 years. If it happens to break by chance within 18 months, you get a new one but, the price for the same player is $60 now. If it breaks within 12, you are covered by warranty anyway. Things like that.

I paid for their undergrad college, they paid for post grad.

However, I did not pay for weddings. A father has to draw a line somewhere ya know. Plus daddy was out chasing pussy. lmfao

I told them that they would have to turn tricks themselves and sell drugs.

This is America, not some commie nation!

The premise of the question assumes it is a parent's duty to spend every last cent they have to put their children through college.  IMHO, that it total bullshit to begin with.  

When I had a son ready to go to college (before I was using providers with any regularity btw) I told him he would get NOTHING from me UNTIL he had proven to me that he could NOT get scholarships, loans and grants to pay for it.  'Proof' was going to have to be a stack of rejection letters and not an empty pocket and a 'well I tried' at the start of the year.  

There are countless opportunities for young people to find funding for higher education wihtout getting into the parents' savings.  The variations of scholarships provided by the US Military alone are staggering.  But when the kid shrugs and says they don't want to do that (they would have to cut their hair, study and not do dope after all!) it is no longer my problem.

BTW..I financed my own college education via a military scholarship and working my ass off too.

MVR

You saw a post? Meaning one person. And my answer to that is no I prefer to just use our food,bill and rent money instead!

Having just emerged from the “kids college” dilemma a year or two ago, my sons in their mid 20’s now, I can relate on many levels.

I really appreciated some of the responses from both ends of the spectrum, those that pay for and do everything to insulate the kids from college tuition costs and those who simply couldn’t or wouldn’t lay it all out and making the kids responsible for some or all of what they need..

There is no simple right or wrong answer to who should pay.  Some families have the means to easily pay the costs of 4 years of school.  For others it’s a matter of desire and fortitude.   When I graduated from High School my blue collar working stiff parents who punched the time clock every day sat me down and delivered a hard dose of reality.   18 year old kids in late sixty’s and early seventies had fewer choices than today.  

My parents were unable to pay for college and if I wanted to go then I’d have to earn the money to do so.   After careful thought and looking and the financial aid options verse a very depressed economy, I chose the military.  I was able to leverage 6 years of college and 2 degrees against severing 4 years active duty plus 2 years active reserves.   Without the Vietnam Era GI Bill and free tuition for veterans at all Massachusetts Colleges and Universities, I wouldn’t have gotten where I am today.  

For whatever reason, probably economic, a college education became more important and much more of an imperative by the turn of the new century.   A generation began to view college as an entitlement.  This put lots of pressure on parents in the margin who really couldn’t afford to pay and were maxing themselves out to deliver on the perceived “entitlement”.

Under these circumstances I can see where a hobbist would have some tough moral and ethical question to deal with.    

I really wasn’t aware of the “hobby” and what was possible with the Internet, TER and all the other escort resources out there when my kids were in school.   We pursued the middle of the road, financial aid and parents and kids contribution based upon need not greed.  

Since discovering the hobby 12 months ago I‘ve been in such a state of shock trying to comprehend what I’ve been missing and all the possibilities   I can say with certainty if this discovery had occurred before this point in my life I would have struggled with those same issues as the OP put forth.   Especially since I was younger and perhaps more virile than I am now.  

But now I’m happy to say I’ve reached a point in my life where its time to reward the guy who went to all the little league games and soccer practices, PTA meeting and parents night.  The same guy who dealt with the fights over grades and academic achievement   Now its time for Dad to have some fun so the hobby is just what the Dr ordered.  

eom