... To just scream FUCK IT ALL and shove them in the local primary.

[Mrsfullhouse]

Good god I'm exhausted. I have three beautiful DC's. DS1 in Reception, DS2 in nursery and DD in year 6. All at a lovely prep school. So far so good....

However, by the ripe old age of 10, my DD has managed to become a rather excellent singer a consummate LAMDA exam taker and very talented hockey player, so all of my time is spent running her around to fixtures/ training/ concerts/ practices/ performances/ exams... you get the picture. DH is at rugby on Saturdays, so it is invariably me that does all the running around because he's either working or too tired on a Sunday. I just seem to spend my life in the car. This excludes all of the actual travel to and from the lovely prep (bloody miles away). Extra travel for all of the lovely things that they do that nice mummies actually turn up to an clap politely as they watch little Horatio murder a violin in cold blood. Plus all the lovely coffee dates- oh and you know, the actual job that I do... that I barely have time for.

The thing is, her lovely prep has encouraged DD to pursue these avenues having 'discovered' her talents- along with a million other things that if she had gone to the local primary, I'm pretty sure I would have been too smugly lazy to even think about. That is no reflection on state school mummies- I know some super-tiger ones.... but I would probably been awful and not even let her join recorder club because- well, who the fuck wants to listen to the fucking recorder.

So this is my life now, and I barely have time to think, let alone spend time polishing my turd enough to look acceptable in public.

I love the lovely prep.... but I think about how ridiculous it is now, and in a few years time I will have three actively participating in all of this shit. No doubt they will stumble upon some glorious talent that DS1 has that will involve me traversing the country, burning £50 notes and chucking them out of the car window as I go.

So, would it be unreasonable to just shout FUCK IT ALL, pull them out, stick them in the lovely, but not as lovely as lovely prep, primary and spend my evenings and weekends drinking very very cold wine and talking to my chickens?

Anybody else just feel like, as much as they love their DC's and their wonderful talents, they wish that they'd just never fucking encouraged them in the first place?

I think the OP is hilair

Send them off to boarding school .....

My dcs went to state school but I don't feel condescended to by the op, FWIW. All the best OP

Sorry to hear about your grandma, but what a fantastic legacy she has left if it makes you all re-evaluate things and have a happier life as a result of the lightbulb moment.

DD1 has some friends who do extra curricular activities every night at the very average local primary. She does gymnastics and swimming and we will leave it at that if possible. I agree there isn't any pressure to do clubs or activities and there are plenty of children who don't do anything.

I will say that being able to walk to school does wonders for all our mental health, we have days at a time where we don't use the car. It sounds like you spend loads of dead time ferrying people places.

I think the OP is very unlucky to have chosen the only prep school in the country without a minibus.

It is very easy to get the tone wrong when you are in a bit of a pit. Of course everyone is entitled to a moan or to be having a tough time but calling others who are less well off than you lazy or smug tends to result in people who are genuinely offended rather than "professionally" offended OP seems to get that on reflection though I'm not sure I can dsay that for other posters. Saying things which are offensive does result in people being offended!

But this stood out for me...

Mil just swept on and took over my entire family

You can have the life you choose (with or without private school if you choose) but first you have to decide what it is and stand up for it. One day your MIL will die just like your grnadma has and how long will you then have been living the life she wanted and you will never get that time back.

You don;t have to buy into the attitude of the parents at your school or your MIL. You can have your own attitude and be happy that it works for you and that you are fortunate to have the choice. Don't squander it.

Good luck

I have a 5 year old son who is a very good footballer. I would like to sign him up to a football academy. There are a lot of football academies to choose from (if application is successful) but there is also a vast amount of academies that are not great and don’t offer the potential for children with football talent to grow. Can anyone recommend any academies in London or ideally South East London? Thanks for your time 😊

You'd be better starting your own thread rather than resurrecting a zombie thread that's irrelevant to your query, people will just answer the original post I'm afraid.

Haha, this one again...!

See I was delighted when DD an exceptional swimmer, decided that she really doesn't want to swim competitively. She still trains regularly, but not at 5 am with the competition swimmers. She may change her mind, and feel she's missed out but thankfully it enables her to have a rounded education and focus on lots of areas.
Perhaps its time to ask your DC what they want?

What Wine said. I missed this thread first time around thankfully.

If you have a really good local state primary, then to my mind there would have to be a really good reason not to send them, not find a reason TO send them there. We have a prep and a lovely primary school equally distant to us and although we considered the prep we went for the local primary. They love it there. They still do extra activities - tennis, piano, football, etc privately so don't miss out on anything. Another really important point is that they are more likely to have local friends if they go to the local primary, so socialising with each other out of school hours is easier. My husband went to a prep a long way from home and was always lonely when he saw all the village children playing at weekends and holidays and he didn't know a soul.

Completely new to this... and I noticed this but it was too late. I will try to delete - somehow, apologies for starting this thread again 😆🙈

Sorry OP, you actually sound rather lively

• lovely cunting phone

Can I ask who on this forum either remembers fondly and with passion every single hobby or sport they ever did as a child after school?

I wish I did and know of a few others who used their “hobbies” and have great careers in them as it was fostered whilst growing up. Taking OP’s post out of the question, some of the posters (who are opposed to the idea that kids should take extra curricular activities) are forgetting that some children/ adults are disadvantaged in their future career development. Especially, boys who are of ethnic minority. These sources of these extra curricular activities gives them a stepping up, fosters confidence and brings in skills which may come into use in their future careers or look good in the CVs.