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...

Middle class

WC= working class

I'm from a big (huge) WC family, but have gone on to create a MC life for myself I suppose. I now hike, cycle, go mountain biking, am a member of a running club, go wild swimming etc etc and am surrounded by people who are similar.
My mum thinks I'm bonkers! I mean, she takes such a dim view of exercise and the outdoors that she almost looks down her nose at me for it. And all women in my family are overweight, and only the men do any form of exercise.
I don't know why that is, but it's a trend I see in other WC families too.

Thank you Tomtraubers

It's cost, access and what your parents spend their freetime on isn't it? For example, DH grew up poor but rural New Zealand. He can shoot and ride horses because they are cheap for farming kids. These are very upper middle class activities in the UK. (Or maybe they are also common for kids from farming background too).

I don't think I'm middle class because I do not do a lot of the sports mentioned on the thread. I don't like sports and my parents don't do them either. My parents earned a comfortable income when we grew up and I went to private secondary. The only middle class thing I do is play an instrument.

Plenty of boys and young men near me playing football in the park, basketball outside or using the outdoor gym. But I don't think those things count as being 'outdoorsy' even thought it is exercise outside.
Does going to the gym count as sporty?

I attend Pilates classes at my local David Lloyd, hopefully this means I’m posh 😃

If you choose to define sport as skiing, rugby, etc then of course affluent families will be more "sporty". And if you define "outdoorsy" as going for occasional family bike rides on expensive bikes, and hiking the High Tatras then the same applies.

However I live in a shabby area of London and I can tell you the boys from non-affluent households are far more sporty in the sense of playing football every day of the year, practice several times a week, matches on the weekend...and it is self driven. Boxing is big too.

I think a lot of middle class people "do" sports that they honestly don't give much time to.

Playing football in the park for free does not count. It is exercise but does not hold any moral superiority as an activity.

Money and access.
When I was a teen I got to do a once a week Tennis group lesson at a private school who were trying to do outreach to the community or something.
I had one rawuet, they had a Wilson bag full of different ones, their school had a bunch of different outdoor and indoor courts, mine had a tarmac netball/hockey court and small plastic portable net.
They got private lessons, the school even had a seperate tennis uniform, most had private matches at David Lloyd's etc so they quickly improved and I didn't keep up with them with my one hour a week lesson at theirs.
When you have money to fund these sports and the equiptment and your kids have access to amazing facilities, private coaches etc it makes it a lot easier to progress, enjoy it etc

DD is not quite 2 and is well on the way to being able to swim. That's because I pay £9 a week (plus the cost of swim nappies etc) and drive her 20 miles each way every week (and have family support to help with her little sister) so she has swimming lessons. We can do this because we have a certain level of privilege. If you're skint, don't have a car, etc, then it's unlikely you'd be able to this.

This might not be the case for all the sports you list, but I'm sure it's the case for lots of them.

Agree with this 100%, it's only football. Our school has no after school clubs as they can't get the teachers to commit apparently & no swimming which is part of the curriculum as nearest public pool is miles away, they do water safety theory instead. The private school locally has a private pool, it was suggested numerous times that maybe we could use their facilities but school said its not an option...

I apologise- that’s not at all what I meant, and I’m sorry if that’s the way it came across. What I was actually saying was that children are forced to do what their parents do, re leisure time.

I have friends who like to mooch round shopping centres at weekends; I don’t enjoy being indoors, so that would be my idea of hell. I get that from my parents, who incidentally were as poor as church mice. We camped on farm fields with one spidery loo if we were lucky, as kids.

I'm a working class single parent, work full time plus UC. My kids between them do rugby, ballet, musical theatre, swimming lessons, kayaking, music lessons. None of it is hugely expensive. Rugby for example is £20 for a year per child and they do free half day sessions in the holidays.It does take time, money and commitment. I'll invest in kit like wetsuits and paddleboards and then we go to local loch a lot in nice weather free apart from petrol and packed lunch.

UC = universal credit?

You manage to fund all those activities and buy expensive equipment such as paddle boards and wetsuits on universal credit? 🤔. I find that difficult to believe.

Forgive me if I'm wrong about the UC meaning.

Surely it’s all down to money.

I’m WC, never been skiing, if I went in holiday as a child it was camping with my GP but not my parents (I only had one Sun holiday with my parents as a child) and I only went abroad when I reached adulthood to visit family but it was paid for by them. I never went on any school trips unless it was free or cheap enough to afford.
We never really went out for days out, I spent my childhood at home, in friends houses or in a park, most of our weekends consisted of bootsales as my parents desperately needed the money.

My MC friends went abroad every year from a very young age, some owned villas in other countries, they always went skiing once a year, they never wore second hand clothes and always had everything they needed, they also all did lots of outside activities like horse riding or martial arts, gymnastics etc, some did music lessons, others were learning other languages.
We had very different houses and very different lifestyles!

UC upper class
UMC upper middle class!

Confusingly @Spaghettisavesmysoul I think someone has also abbreviated UC for universal credit!

Well, money.
But, I’d class our family as middle class.
I dislike most sport. So does one of my children.

We are on UC and no way we could afford all of that!
I think it depends on how much your rent is, if you live in a cheap area/council home your rent is considerably less and therefore more disposable income. I know families in council houses and they have a higher quality of life than us as all our money goes on rent, we pay almost 3x what they pay. They can afford to fund extra activities for their children, we barely break even after all bills are paid, I can’t even afford to take my kids clothes shopping and buy everything second hand where as my one friend can splurge at next and is able to buy whatever her kids need whenever they need them. We can’t move either as our house is already one of the cheaper rents, 3 beds here are 1250 plus! It’s very depressing!

I'm a working class single parent, work full time plus UC. My kids between them do rugby, ballet, musical theatre, swimming lessons, kayaking, music lessons.

Universal Credit is clearly rather generous these days …

We are on UC and no way we could afford all of that!

I'd have thought not. Even an above average wage would struggle surely.
I counted at least seven activities, including music lessons, and the author of the post described them as requiring money and time investment, or some such. Certainly.

I have friends who like to mooch round shopping centres at weekends; I don’t enjoy being indoors, so that would be my idea of hell. I get that from my parents, who incidentally were as poor as church mice. We camped on farm fields with one spidery loo if we were lucky, as kids

I am more like your friends by personality. But I appreciate that exercise and outdoor activities are good for children (and adults). I also, as MC person, understand that my children having a working knowledge of a variety of things will stand them in good stead when they are older. There is an intrinsic social capital that comes with these things that, yet again, MC people can then provide their children.

Going back to why I get so cross with the school. Even just offering an alternative to football at lunch times would go a long way to providing a wider range of children with these sorts of skills/knowlege etc.

The person who pays £20 for rugby per year.... where and how? Our rugby club was, by local standards, cheap at £200 per year and the kit was expensive but with a good selection of second hand options. Plus taking part required that one parent get up and take the rugby playing child out in all weathers, often for hours at a time if there was an away match, leaving the other parent with children at home. A single dad at our club used up every favour he could so that his much younger daughter didn't have to come to every single Sunday because he didn't want to cancel it as his son loved rugby so much.

I used to work in a town which has a reputation for being pretty downmarket and you saw loads of men (particularly men) at the gym a lot during the day. But agree that isn't seen as outdoorsy. I'd say gyms aren't that influenced by class except if you can afford the expensive ones I guess.

Things like skiing, horse riding and sailing are more mc because they cost more to do. I can't afford to send my dc horseriding although she'd love to do it.

Swimming is somewhere in the middle. Swim lessons are £50 per child per month where I live and that's the local leisure centre so probably the cheapest you can get in the area. That isn't the same as skiing but it isn't an insignificant amount if you're on a budget.

I remember someone joking that you know you're somewhere posh if someone is running along the street and nobody is chasing them! I imagine even running on the roads might not be possible in some areas.

That's such an interesting point

We are MC but downwardly mobile 🤣and our kids attend a state school but do team sports outside of school
It also keeps them busy in a good way, rather than "hanging round street corners"
If you are in the car on the way to a hockey tournament you can't be causing too much trouble

@Coffeepot72
if she works full time plus a UC top up but has low rental costs she’ll have more disposable income but it still seems excessive!

Our rent is high and we need UC to top up our wages but we certainly can’t afford any extra activities for our kids, some months we’ve been in our unplanned overdraft and we don’t do anything, we never live beyond our means, all money goes on bills and essentials, I was in tears the other night as yet again I had to say no to my children joining a club as we don’t have the funds.

One thing that has increased in recent years is the number and quality of outdoor gyms and obstacle courses. There are some pretty good ones. They are free (apart from getting there). Have a look into that?

Regarding swimming, are there any subsidised courses or pools? Not an area I know loads about.

When I was 16-18 I coached on Spar track which provided a week's athletics for kids 6-13. It was either free or cheap. Lunch was included and it was run from a local leisure centre. If things like this exist they can be a very good option as they introduce children to all aspects of athletics (track & field) and they may find one they love. I was heavily involved with athletics and there were cheaper ways to do it. One coach had a boot full of spikes (competition shoes) so people could borrow them if they needed. People shared lifts. The training was done very locally at different locations. In the summer you needed shorts, trainers, crop top and T shirt. Water bottle. All stuff most people would have anyway. The club had subsidised memberships for low income and students. Races were cheap back then, about £2.50 per event at an open meeting - although that will have changed. I think leagues were free (leagues are a series of events at athletics tracks where points are added up, numerous clubs compete against each other. It tends to be included in your membership).

I used to train on the school grass track (free).

If swimming is too pricey I'd definitely look into your local athletics club! There's a variety of events from 100m/200m, to middle distance, long distance, throws, jumps, hurdles, steeplechase, mulit-events.

www.englandathletics.org/find-an-athletics-club/

www.britishathletics.org.uk/get-involved/find-a-club/

I hope this helps someone.