Flaming Hobbies?!?!

[ShowMeWhatYouGot]

Everyone and their dog seems to have a hobby.

I'm just sat here binge eating biscuits & watching TV repeats thinking I could be doing something much more productive/interesting.

I have a toddler who sleeps great 7-7 and my OH only goes out Wednesday evenings, so have a lot of time I could fit things into, but don't.

AIBU to think eating biscuits a hobby?

What would you do?

[BackforGood]

I'd join something.
Make a weekly appointment with something I enjoy.

Sport? Music? Craft Group ? Volunteering ?

[poorpaws]

Can I join you in your hobby, I love biscuits 😉

[Crowdblundering]

Couch to 5k?

[PuddleJumper01]

ask yourself what's missing in your life and fill that (those) gap(s)

[oneohfivethreeeight]

Take up baking and make your owns?

[glitterazi]

I always say it's so important to find time to do something you enjoy just for you.
Maybe it's something you enjoyed doing many years ago and you re-discover, or something completely new.
Whether it be sewing, writing, dancing around to music from your teen years, tinkering with cars.... do it!
Do what interests you for once. You feel a million times better.

[HicDraconis]

You could do lots of things with your evenings! Are you interested in crafts like sewing, knitting, crochet...? Those can be done while eating biscuits and watching TV shows :)

Or you could take up a new sport. I started karate at 40 and love it, I've made so many new friends and got a lot fitter. Plus if anyone tries to jump me in the car park at night I have more confidence in my abilities to evade them.

Lots of local clubs (choirs, zumba, dancing, samba drumming) meet in the evenings and always welcome new members.

Do you have any form of adult education near you? Learn a new language and then go on holiday there to try it out. Or try your hand at pottery, or cooking, or making jewellery, or woodworking.... possibilities are endless.

Keep one evening a week to watch TV and eat biscuits though :)

[ScottishBadger]

Join the Women's Institute

[Meowstro]

Netflix is a hobby, me and my DH are pros at it. I also hear biscuits go well with it

[EmeraldScorn]

You know I was thinking on Saturday of exactly this, the fact that everyone on MN seems to have a hobby but then I wondered what the criteria was for an activity to be considered a hobby as opposed to just something you want to do.

I like cooking but I don't see it as a hobby; Similarly I enjoy cleaning but it's something that has to be done out of necessity and I need to eat hence I cook. I also quite like a number of other activities but regardless of enjoyment I do these things because for whatever reason they need to be done or will be beneficial in some way, for example reading and I love to read but it's not a hobby.

I think the word itself "hobby" is thrown around far too much on here and I have honestly never heard any of my family/friends or even work colleagues refer to having hobbies.

I do often laugh when I read on this forum for the umpteenth time about hobbies, archery at dusk, baking at dawn, learning a language at lunch, milking the cows at dinner and zumba at bedtime .... People on MN seem to have extraordinary lives with endless hours in a day!

In my life it isn't the "norm" for adults to refer to activities they like doing as "having a hobby"; It sounds very middle class to me (especially the way it is conveyed on here) and I can not help but roll my eyes when I read the stream of threads about hobbies.

On here at least it comes across as snobby but that's just my perception of it - Different strokes for different folks and all of that.

Genuinely though, if anyone I know said to me that they had a "hobby" I don't know if I'd be able to take them seriously ever again; Why can't people enjoy a pastime without labeling it?

[clearsommespace]

I would be never refer to the activities I do as hobbies in RL, I would just say 'skating' or 'karate' or whatever. However I do refer to DH and my hobbies on MN to keep it vague deliberately just to avoid being spotted. If say there is a relationship nor household management issue, it's mostly irrelevant what the activity is that is keeping someone out of the house or busy. So hobby is a convenient word.

[clearsommespace]

Emerald, I enjoy gardening and baking but do it when it needs to be done or on a whim, so I wouldn't see that as a hobby. But I also participate in an activity which require a once weekly commitment to meet up with others at a scheduled time plus occasional additional commitments. That's my hobby.

[ShowMeWhatYouGot]

I'm so glad biscuits are hobbies! That said share bag crisps are also good

I honestly think me and OH have watched everything on Netflix, including Paw patrol 100's of times

I do like cooking/baking, but like others have said I don't really see it as a hobby, just something I do to keep the family alive & healthy.

I like the idea of couch to 5k, I think running might be the one, which would also help the effects of the late night grazing right?

Thank you ladies x

[FiveGoMadInDorset]

I knit or do a jigsaw puzzle, very boring, I am walking a lot at the moment but training for the Moonwalk in May

[wettunwindee]

Everyone has different ideas as to what they enjoy but I struggle to watch an entire film. I'll be honest, I only learnt how to finish a task in my late twenties as opposed to having many unfinished projects on the go (professionally and personally). An evening of netflix sounds like something I'd have to endure with a broken leg.

I could be doing something much more productive/interesting.

Yes, you should be. Read a good book. Get a pet. Tend the garden. Sudoku. Take a course: educational or otherwise. Attend classes or do it online.

I love Udemy.

Each to their own and I don't want to be disparaging but you're wasting your life away.

[BarbaraofSeville]

I hike in the Dales, Peak District etc at the weekends and have also learnt to scuba dive. We have an evening pool training session once a week and also travel to lakes about an hour or two away at weekends.

I also read a lot and am trying to learn a language using the Duo Lingo phone app - that is quite a good thing to do as you can just do a few minutes every day. I do like eating biscuits too.

I know a lot of people on here do 'hobbies' but there are an awful lot of 'activities' too, but that seems mostly for DCs - 'On Wednesdays I take DD to her activity', because obviously if someone admits to their DD doing gymnastics, archery, dancing, drama or whatever, that will announce to the whole of Mumsnet exactly who they are.