Was anyone else not ferried around as a child to various clubs?

I'm 45 and remember doing lots of clubs - I did tennis, swimming, athletics, drama, Brownies and dancing at various points of my life, oh and a short, ill-advised stint learning the piano. I think it's normal. Childhood is a time to try loads of stuff out and find out what you like,

I’m 37 and I had something on every single night.
Mondays - Art club
Tuesday - Netball & Brownies/Guides
Wednesday - Gardening club & Rehearsals for Pantomime
Thursday - I stayed late at school to finish a rag rug we were making then I’d go figure skating
Friday - Drama and Theatre club
Saturday mornings - Swimming followed by 4 hours of dance classes
Sundays - Horse-riding and then Rehearsals for pantomime

When I got to secondary I swapped Netball for a dance class, swapped gardening for singing and switched rag rugs to after school cookery classes. I still did everything else and was usually the lead in the school show every year which meant rehearsals for that on Fridays before drama club and Mondays before art classes.
I encouraged my children to do as many classes and clubs as possible; dance, theatre, singing, football, Rugby, kickboxing, am-drams, beavers/cubs/scouts, swimming and music lessons. What has stuck has been my older son does scouts, swimming and Pokemon, my younger son does rugby, swimming, singing and theatre.
My parents certainly weren’t well off, I had the classes as part of wraparound care for the children of service men/women, and things like horse riding and figure skating were done with someone’s mum who had retired from the sport and was looking to ease her own boredom, so it was cheap.
My mum had 5-6 friends who had daughters my age, in my year at school so they “divvied” up the driving; one week Mrs Y would take us to brownies and the next week it would be Mrs X. We also cycled A LOT, so once we were home from school (same car share system) we would get on our bikes and cycle to the pony shed, or the ice rink or the swimming pool.
The only thing I couldn’t cycle to was rehearsals but luckily my now-husband was already driving and I was able to bag a lift off him or other people in the group, so my mum wasn’t driving everywhere. (Couldn’t rely on my dad being home)

We had cubs, brownies, youth club and Sunday school. Plus any trips that they organised, also school trips. All with packed lunches and spending money saved out-of-pocket money.
This was the late 60s, the era of the family car. Few Mums could drive then, it was considered too risky. So no ferrying around.

I was not ferried to after school clubs / activities. One we didn't really have the money and two we lived rurally. I had to get a school bus home and there was no other public transport to get me home. I did ballet for a while on a Saturday morning and did learn to swim in a class on set evenings but that was it.

There was a period in the 90s where I had about 4 activities, on Saturdays I had performing arts for 3 hours and then multiple tubes and busses to get to swimming lessons.

I absolutely hated it, I never asked to do anything but my mum thought it was good to keep me busy.

The only thing I ever asked for was music lessons and I stuck at those.

No clubs. Ever. No school trips (at least, not paid for ones). Family had no car so no lifts. We either bussed it or we didn't go.

Life as a working class kid in a poor family.

From age 9 if I wanted to do anything I took myself there. I cant believe how much travelling around I did, in the dark (walking and busses), at a young age. It was neglect (she was too interested in vodka, men and her pals). I loved going to clubs and scraped the momey together taking glass bottles to the shop to get the money I needes.
As a parent I wanted my kids to do at least swimming and martial arts as I seem them as essential life skills. They started gymnastics aged 2 and continued all through primary with that (evenings and/or weekends). Both play an instrument and again I see that as a valuable life skill. One loves athletics amd the other stage school. They had evening religious lessons for a while too. It did involve a lot of driving. Only music was expensive. It was maybe 6/7 hours of activites per week - so an average of an hour per day. I dont think thats excessive. The kids stopped when they chose to - werent forced to go. I wanted them to have a range of opportunities and to know they had my support. Ive had unhelpful comments from some mums (digs) and I was close to highlighting how much of their childrens free time they spent boozing and partying (according to their social media) - which was way more than I spent driving! But I didnt do that, what I do when not working is not their business and what they do is not my business.
Im not sure the point of the thread.

I was born in 66. Grew up on council estates in east London.
We were never ferried anywhere! We took the bus or walked. And we played out around the flats we lived in. All during the holidays. The only out of school activities we did were those straight after school so we just walked home or got the bus afterwards depending on where we lived. This was completely normal for me and every other kid at my school

So glad you found something you loved! And I get the mixed feelings seeing your grandchildren do this stuff... it's not easy!

I tried lots of different clubs but never stuck them out. They’d generally be weekend ones so my dad would take me (weekend dad). I tried dance once and hated it, horse riding I think twice and saw someone fall off and break her arm so didn’t return, karate once and hated it… I did stick drama out for about 2 years and loved it. I tried Brownies once during the week with a friend but I hated the constant talk of Jesus and God so didn’t return.

My DC go to one club each a week so the ferrying is 3 days a week in total.

You can do both, my son does. He does 3-4 acitvities a week (total spends £100 - 120/ month, we are lucky) and still has plenty of time to play out unsupervised. Both things really benefit him in different ways.

I’m in my fifties and did activities 5 days out of 7.

My Mum grew up very poor and was keen we should have the opportunity to try things she hadn’t.

My own children had swimming lessons, plus another sport, plus music lessons, and brownies/cubs.

They dropped things and picked up things as they grew older, they both did at least one of their interests to quite a high level.

How much ferrying is required (which seems to be the bit that really annoys you) depends on where you live. Ours were able to walk to at least half of their activities and we usually organised reciprocal runs with other parents for the rest.

I played out as a child and so did my own children (again it depends on where you live)

We also did baking, gardening, art, games etc at home - they aren’t mutually exclusive.

You can make your own choices for your own children.

I got taken to Brownies, in the winter but cycled in the summer. It wasn’t far. Cycled to guides, horse riding lessons on a Saturday morning, cycled to swimming on Sundays. I was only ferried to Brownies in the winter because I was still very young and had to cross a main road in the dark. My dad would cycle to horse riding, to start with, he’d have a cup of tea at the nearby cafe while waiting. After I turned 10, I cycled by myself. It was only 4 or 5 miles each way. I could change an innertube.
I know there was less traffic and a different time and am now, very grateful for the independence and freedom that cycling to clubs and activities gave me.

No clubs. My sister went to Brownies but I refused and I was offered ballet but again I liked the idea but was too shy. I went on regular play dates though, which my mum who didn't drive, had to collect me from. I never played out as we had no children as neighbours. I read a lot of books!

I did lots of hobbies but mostly got myself there and back because walking and cycling were safe and easy to do where I lived even for very young lower primary school kids. Then for hobbies out of town, we'd take a bus. I think if our parents had to drive us everywhere we wouldnt' have been able to do so many things, due to them working.

No, never after I stopped doing ballet on a Saturday morning at age 6! I never got taken anywhere and didn't have any hobbies that I couldn't get to on my own. I got the bus to ice skating on a Saturday and walked to my drama club.

I went to a few activities but was expected to get myself to and from them. I remembering lying to my brownies leaders that my mum was waiting outside because they wouldn’t have let me walk home on my own in the dark and that would have meant I couldn’t go. I would cycle three miles to piano lessons, a couple of miles to a church club, take a public bus home from a local city centre at 9pm at night from an orchestra age 13 (then walk from the bus stop home at the other end). I remember cycling five miles to a friend’s birthday party when I was 15 - her dad was horrified when he realised that I was cycling home alone after it at about 11pm.

Kids play out where i live, we have a park near us and it was full of kids over the summer holidays.

Christ, you should move round here. We've got a big grassy bit out the front of our row of houses and all we hear from the start of March till October is kids playing (although it often sounds like they're trying to murder each other!)

I can't complain, as up until about 5 years ago DD was one of them!

My childhood in a nutshell! Discovered painting in my sixties after I was widowed. To see my grandchildren perform (one acting, one playing an instrument) gives me an incredible amount of joy, but tinged with a little sadness and envy.

Between my 2 children they are out 6 days a week at various activities. They do play out in their bikes etc off a weekend/in the holidays.

my kids have to to be driven to their activities because of their ages. I plan my hobbies around theirs. I stopped going to the weekly pub quiz with friends because it was on the one day both my kids have to be in 2 different places at the same time.

I don't think there were clubs to join when I was young other than Brownies or Speech and Drama.

I was born in 1950,late. parents didn't have a car,so I wasn't ferried anywhere. I had ballet lessons in the village hall,guitar lessons in my teens in the grounds of my school. Youth club was next door to the school,got a bus there.

We didn't have a car, but i was taken to brownies/guides and maybe an after school thing and I would try new hobbies and drop out at the term end because I didn't like them,

My own children are late 20s to mid 30s they had hobbies and groups and music lessons so maybe 3/4 times a week, it isn't a a new phenomenon .

I don't think broadening children's interests and letting them socialise outside the home is a bad thing and I don't think any of their activities were a waste of time or money,

I mean isn't it just as simple as people wanting to do the best they can for their own children? Some kids are happy at home, some kids are happier being super busy, some families can afford multiple activities, some can't?

Most families have two working parents so it's not always an option to have children just at home doing whatever. We couldn't have the kids home when they were little so they were super busy. Turns out they both enjoy being busy.

My daughter is autistic and really struggles socially. She has situational mutism and doesn't do well with most kids her age. What she does do well is dance - so she has dance class many, many hours a week and is super happy there. Over the summer when she's home more often she is distinctly less happy. It keeps her fit and healthy and really, really strong - all things that are super important for me as I'm none of those. She has something like 15 hours of dance a week plus school and homework and tutoring but that leaves an awful lot of time for crafts and baking.