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?

@Stubbedtoes Agreed.🙏

Mine have Saturday morning school and some Saturday afternoon fixtures. Works well because they're sporty and everything is done at school. We tried doing some stuff outside as well but gradually gave it up as most do eventually at our school. It's too much otherwise. They have plenty of downtime (and plenty of you tube!)

God, I'm such a parenting failure. State school (imagine!) and she's allowed to watch YouTube.

I'm clearly raising a total degenerate.

@doublexegg I would choose sports coaches over youtube anyday. we are all trying our best so let’s not be mean to one another.

Not because of state school but because of your inability to relate to people from all walks of life. the world is a missed bag. Someone might have parents who can send them to Public Schools but they have health problems. Life has a funny way of balancing things out. Some of the best schools are state schools.

I'd choose the Saturday activities school hands down.

Unless the children's father wants to do all the schlepping and the organising and the filling out of forms and going online to do all the booking, buying of special uniforms/ gear, etc, required for swimming or Scouts or piano or Tae Kwan Do, or whatever...
Do not get sucked into that malarkey.

As an aside, I always though the whole point of a prep school was to avoid mixing with other kids.

Im not being mean just a thought.

Your thought that I didn’t like spending time with my kids just because I couldn’t decide between Saturday school and activities independent of the school, which I would I take my own children to came across mean.

@mathanxiety I never really thought of Prep School like that. I thought it was for uncreative Mums like me , who needs wrap around care whilst we work lots of hours a week. Not to avoid community kids.

So basically they can go to a school close to home that also provides extra curricular activities all in one place or go to school 30 minutes away and need to be driven to all activities. I'd obviously pick the first choice. It seems easier on everyone.

@AllosaurusMum Yes thats exactly the situation Mon-Fri School 25 minutes or Saturday school close to home. You have absolutely nailed it. Thank you

There was an interesting thread a few weeks ago about how many extracurricular activities (it mentioned scouts in particular but moved on a bit) were actually extremely middle class. Choosing a school further away and schlepping the children to various Saturday activities doesn’t mean they’ll mix with a different sort of child to the one they may meet at the closer school with Saturday attendance.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4962932-scouts-is-or-always-was-an-incredibly-middle-class-activity?page=1

@CruCru I have a feeling I will be up late tonight reading the scout thread. Been waiting 2 years for a slot and I don’t think I am working class…

Is this satire? The posts read like it.

@Beezknees A bit of both. It’s tough out there and if you read the Scout thread the comment will make sense