I just joined the group today, so apologies if I am responding too late, but this is a topic I know well.
Chess is a game that can be enjoyed at all levels. The important thing is to find a set of tournaments where your child is competitive, which means she is neither losing all the time, nor winning all the time.
One thing to note is that the required level of commitment increases significantly if your child starts becoming competitive at the state or national level. Someone who just wants to play for fun will do fine with instruction from the local chess club.
However, if your child really likes the game and wants to win the state championship in a seriously competitive state, that requires private coaching and being willing to commit a couple of days a month to attending all day tournaments.
Competing at the national level gets very serious (~15 hours per week of study, plus tournaments almost every weekend, and purchases of many chess books). Don't push this onto an unwilling child. On the other hand, if your child loves chess as much as mine does, then you actually need to make time to prioritize activities other than chess. I pull him away to go out and play basketball.
