To like Saturday School for Prep School Children?

[FormerLondoner]

As a full time working mum, the last thing I need is to be driving to multiple out of school activities on Saturdays. So with Saturday school the school plans all sports fixtures etc or I do is drop off and pick up or watch if it’s local. Hubby thinks the DC should join local clubs on Saturday’s such as Scouts (Been waiting for 2 years for a slot to come up) rugby, etc. The only thing is DC finish school at 5pm in the week and the children who attend the Saturday stuff in our area finish school at 3.30 so they attend said activities at least one evening in the week as well as the weekend.I don’t want to tire my poor darlings out by adding evening activities after such a long day at school. AIBU to outsource Saturday mornings to the school?

You were doing well until “ poor darlings” BLNT

I would send them off to boarding school, then you won't have to bother with them on Sundays either, poor darlings.

But you know so few full boarding options now. They’d probably want to come home after matches. So tiresome.

Good way to have your kids grow up wondering why you didn’t like them.

But darling boarding would give them the best start in life

I don’t want my children to do school or activities/clubs on the weekends. That’s our time to relax, do chores, attend parties and have fun as a family.

Can you get a nanny to run them about at the weekend ?

You don’t want to risk having to actually spend time with your children that’s for sure!

Was there a reason you bothered having kids at all?

I know that this thread is taking the piss but I am tired (and not particularly well) and can’t see what you want out of it. If the children go to a prep school that includes Saturdays then Saturdays are compulsory - so it’s irrelevant whether one of you thinks the children should go to local activities on Saturdays.

A friend who is a single mum is fairly anti private school but said if she could, she would have gone private so she didn’t have to ferry her children around so much at the weekend.

Perhaps I am just a bit humourless.

I survived Saturday morning school. I'm sure yours will too.

So why do they need to do activities on a Saturday? Not every child does!

I work in a private school ( we don’t have Saturday school) and plenty of the kids are there, like yours, till 5 (or gone 5) during the week, but it’s not for lessons, its for extra curricular clubs after lessons have finished. I doubt any school is teaching till 5, your children will be doing sports and clubs at that time of day.

Do the clubs offered ant school after lessons and scrap Saturday. Let the children just chill on a Saturday.

Dear ImAMinion,
Thank you never quite looked at it like that. The idea was that if they do everything at school then they don’t get to mix much with other children outside of school but like you say, they would have done extra curriculum in the week. I think a lot of us Mums put ourselves under a lot of pressure sometimes unnecessarily. Thank you

My middle son loved it but my eldest daughter was not keen. I think each child is different.

Do your kids' preferences come into this? They might not want to have every spare moment managed for them.

@CruCru You are not not lacking in humour it’s quite a lot of work spending the weekend taking kids here, there and everywhere on the weekend especially when you are single and working full time. The laundry and everything else is still waiting for you. I think everyone deserves at least one day to just do nothing. That said extra curricular is really good for one’s mental health later on in life.

This makes no sense. If your child is at a school that has lessons / sports on a Saturday, this is compulsory. So it makes no difference what you think?

@RandomButtons the question is not about liking your children it’s about his to manage extra curricular activities. Have it all done at school on Saturday mornings or find other activities in the community which are not organised by school. We are an active family and we think it’s good to teach them how to be busy.

Do you have a "hubby" or are you single?

@ginuine the point is would you choose such a school or would you organise your own activities on saturday mornings by choosing a mon-friday school.

@FormerLondoner I'd prefer my children to have a life outside of school as I think it's healthier not to live in a total bubble.

My daughter does theatre school on Saturday mornings so acting singing and dance all in one place which works really well (although often involves Sunday rehearsals as well when they have shows)

@LaPalmaLlama Was meant to be light hearted but clearly didn’t land very well. I hope you can see passed that and try and share your opinion on saturday school.

Well rugby is on Sundays, so whether they do Saturday school or not, they can still do that if your DH is prepared to take them!

@Hatty65 I actually have no issue with flexi boarding when they are at least 15 years old and I would consider full time boarding at 6th form if it suited my children and they wanted to. I wouldn’t do it before 13 years old though.

Sounds like you want to keep them busy to keep them out your way.