Why are the mc & mc children more outdoorsy & sporty?

[Spaghettisavesmysoul]

Following on from the umc lifestyle thread, I noticed many posts saying they were much more outdoorsy & sporty. Skiing is nearly a pre requisite & a silent class marker! The mc kids we know can all swim very, very well, cycling loads, hike, ski, play hockey, tennis & rugby.
Why is this? Is it from the schools they attend, parental aspirations or interests? The wc class kids I know (mine included) are not that way inclined whatsoever, outdoors consists more of freeplay as opposed to sports & my boys enjoy unstructured footie with their pals...

Because it's expensive to take these lessons and buy the equipment needed. Surely that's obvious?

Apart from opportunity, the sports require a significant financial, time and travel investment. So it’s probably not just one barrier to entry beyond interest, it’s multiple.

I do think cost is a factor. Skiing is horrendously expensive!

Football is massive in wc male youth culture

There is a focus on sports in many independent schools. Rugby is more likely to be played in independent schools in England than in state schools. Horse riding, swimming, skiing etc cost money.

Access and money helps.

Many "mc" outdoors activities are prohibitively expensive for most people (skiing, sailing, riding).

The rich are likely to either own land or have ready access to privately owned land via friends, which opens up further activities (shooting etc) which are entrenched in wealthy life-styles.

But even learning to swim at a thd local pool is out of reach of many due to cost.

Public schools also provide early exposure to many outdoor sports and activities, which are expensive. As adults then, these children have already learned the sports so don't need to pay for lessons and coaching. Likewise, if they've not learned, they'll have been able to try a wider variety of sports so as adults they'll know what they want to spend their money on if they want to try something again when that cost can be too much for many people to even attempt (lots of equity to be bought).

State schools don't always teach children to play sports properly. All very well if the child is naturally coordinated or competitive, but for everyone else they miss out on whole activities, potentially for life, because no one had the time to teach them how to do it properly when they were young. Their formative experiences are also less likely to be enjoyable.

People without wealth have less access to open spaces, especially green spaces and especially pleasant green spaces. This further reduces their enjoyment and participation of outdoor sports. In decades gone by, they may have played more freely on the street but increased traffic, safety fears and gaming has all influenced this.

More to say but that's the gist.

i think it's a private/state school difference, overlaid w rural/urban.

we are mc but my kids have never skied (nor have I), never played hockey, never played cricket on anything bigger than a MUGA etc.

they are reasonably active though...

I think having the energy and motivation for sport is more likely if you do a job where you sit down all day. Someone who does a hard physical job is less likely to feel the need to go for a run or play tennis in the evenings for fitness. WC people do sport, but it's more likely to be football at the weekend, so maybe less of a regular thing?

Also, the kind of sports the MC/UC do (tennis, horse riding, skiing, riding expensive carbon framed bikes) can be pretty pricy. More so than a kick about on a Saturday, anyway.

Skiing is a class marker partly because of the cost. I grew up WC and didn't know anyone who skied. It qasnt part of my world at all.

I've learnt to ski as an adult though. I caught myself asking someone "Do you ski?" the other week (we were talking about a location that has a lot of skiing, so it was relevant, honest) and the minute I heard myself I cringed and thought, "Oh god, what a posh wanker I must sound" 😂

As people have pointed out, a lot of sports are expensive, for classes and so on. School sport (P.E.) isn't great a lot of the time and can put people off. Whereas sport outside of school, such as dance lessons, can be really fun, but it's so expensive. It's a shame. Especially for girls, there is a big drift away from sport around a certain age and it's really sad. I actually studied barriers to sports participation and it is a special interest of mine!

I wanted my kids to be sporty because they both have ADHD (as have I).

One has SLD, but still swam competitively, played football and enjoyed horse riding. She never mastered skiing, so we’d go snow shoe trekking instead ( I also enjoy this more too).

The other hasn’t found a sport he doesn’t enjoy yet. As a family, we enjoy being outdoors, in water, snow, on wheels or feet.

They may not have been sporty with different parents. I may not have been outdoorsy had I had different parents too.

So to summarise- it’s mostly parental imo! 😁

Cost. DD dances at a cost of £180 a term. Riding is £34 per hour.
both boys swim at £60 a month each for 1 45min lesson per week. They’re still only 5 & 3 so will no doubt want to do more activities soon and have a wide range of choice at their school (private)

If they go to private schools sports are taken very seriously by the schools. These schools know that sports. music, drama do not detract from academic attainment because of taking up time, they contribute to it somehow.

Mc parents st state schools pay for outside lessons, and organise their childrens’ timetables to fit them in. They make a priority of it. Even state school ‘clubs’ need paying for.

State school heads should give some of the allowances that go with their free school meals children, which is intended to cover more than just their meals, to pay for them to ho to a club. Imo it is not at all clear that they help poor children know about this or access these clubs. They are about £50 per half term and a child needs years’ worth to get the benefits from them.

Most outdoorsy sports also require access to transport, fuel to get to the areas it can be done, the correct clothing and equipment.... none of it is cheap.

There is a big divide between rural and urban though. Where I live, everyone hillwalks and lots of people are fellrunners/mountain bikers. Because the hills are literally walking distance from your house, outdoor sport is very accessible. On a warm dry summer evening, I can go for a hillwalk after work.

When I lived in a deprived part of central London, almost no one I knew hillwalked regularly, because it was difficult to access.

Obviously cost. Time, and more especially, money. Those who do extremely well, in my experience, have extra tuition and lessons, and summer/half term residentials that you'd have to be quite wealthy to afford. Plus the associated equipment needed.

Coincidence that the majority background of some of the stereotypically 'elite' sports and arts is middle/upper middle class? The difficulty of funding for those talented people from poorer backgrounds is a real pity, and only extreme natural talent might help secure this for them.

Though the local dry ski slopes where we used to live made that more accessible and the demographic was mixed. Not quite the same as skiing holidays and the like I know.

Being active/outdoorsy isn’t morally neutral, it’s definitely perceived as a positive character trait in the same way as being academic is. It’s tied up with associations of being a team player, competitive but gracious in defeat, not afraid of getting a bit muddy etc. All v mc positive traits, so one’s to encourage your children to develop. Plus I think there’s a sense that indoor activities, e.g gaming/screen time, are lazy and it’s better to tire kids out outdoors.

The answer is obvious,financially out of reach for many people
People having strenuous jobs and more likely working unsociable hours are less likely to have the time ,money and energy to commit to many sports regularly.
Sitting in an office all day uses up less energy and the motivation to be outside at weekends are more appealing.

You don't appear to have taken any account of income at all. Everything you listed costs money.

I think it begins even earlier than school and clubs. I think there’s a handed-down culture of fresh air being healthy and pretty much a necessary part of every day. You exercise your children like you would exercise your dog and If you have a nice middle-class garden or access to safe parks that’s not so very difficult to achieve.
When I was a child, going for a walk at the weekend was a family activity that began as soon as we could walk - again, easy to achieve if you can bundle all your kids into your nice car and drive to a nearby country park. My parents backed off about this a bit when we were teenagers but only if we had got ourselves out and about sufficiently - otherwise we’d all be off our for a compulsory walk again.
From the time I had a newborn, my mother would tell me to bundle her up and get out in the pram for fresh air and, even though I lived in a city and had a winter baby, I would pound the pavements for an at 4pm daily because “fresh air makes babies sleep”. It did seem to settle her and tbh I thrive on routines so I just did it. I think it’s sort of cultural and passed on through the generations. It’s just what you do.

Thank you for the great replies, I thought I was going to get my head bitten off! It's sad really, especially the swimming, as an op pointed out above swimming is so expensive in local pools, I can't swim so can't teach my ds's so they do go but I have to cut back elsewhere. The local private has its own pool with swimming scheduled in each week! If I had the money I'd be sending my boys there:(

So the cost of your hobbies are not a factor for you ,whereas for many these hobbies are totally out of many peoples reach financially.

Money. Most sports require coaching and specialised equipment which isn't cheap, even hillwalking which at first would seem like a free outdoor thing costs a lot.
Walking boots, proper waterproof clothing, backpack, flasks, base layers, etc it can soon add up, factor in that most deprived areas are urban and would require transport to actually get you out into the countryside, and its cost prohibitive.

It's expensive. You need to pay for lessons and memberships of clubs, and also pay for expensive equipment and clothing that often gets wrecked if it is being used on a regular basis (also sometimes outgrown quickly).

Also, although things like hiking could be 'free' if you happen to live in the Lake District, they aren't if, like, most people, you live in a city and have to go and stay somewhere for a few nights in a hotel or cottage.

The great thing about football is that at a basic level, all that is required is a group of children, a bit of open space and a ball. Same can't be said of tennis, swimming or rugby.

Sport, arts, the wealthy do more of everything don't they. Because it costs.
Head down to the local Indie and you'll find every other pupil plays the harp, the bassoon, the cello, plus plays county hockey and swims.
It's not just the cost of funding the equipment, the coaching, travelling to and from, it's also the time commitment. If both parents are working full time with jobs you have to commute to, it becomes even harder to participate in this stuff because when do you do it, the weekend is often the only downtime, and homework needs to be completed because you couldn't do it in the week because, work + after school club.

DH had sailing and horse riding lessons when young. His parents were Captains of the mens and ladies hockey teams and that’s where they met. Sports require time and expense. My family were not well off so no money for lessons but I was good enough for the hockey and cross country team at school. I grew up by the sea and was just taught in the sea by my Mum. DS regular primary school had some funding so they had a few lessons for free. We then had the luck of a retired swimming teacher befriending us on holiday in Florida and she gave DS a few one to one lessons over the week.

@TomTraubertsBlues where you live does make a difference, if I ran I could have my foot on the beach in three minutes for the first 18 years of my life. Was like a fish as a child.

I think some people are just naturally sporty as well.

And as another PP notes. Yes 'walking is free'..... But it doesn't hold quite the same appeal does it, to pound the pavements of a rough urban area with a few antisocial youths around. Doesn't quite fit the image of healthy outdoor pursuits like hill walking or tramping round a picturesque country lane with the odd horse passing by and birds in the trees!