If you grew up in the 80s/early 90s. Did you do extra curricular activities?

[Jellycatjellycat]

I'm interested to see what is the norm.

I did nothing, no swimming, dance, brownies or anything like that. I do remember other girls doing Brownies and Ballet after school and asking my mum if I could go. She shut it down and told me I wouldn't like it.

These days of course most children do a lot of extra curricular activities but wondering if perhaps it wasn't such a thing years ago.

Swim lessons till competent

Brownies for a while

Jujutsu for many years - taught me everything I needed to know about life!

I grew up in the 90s and it was all ballet for girls, karate for boys. I didn't do any extra curriculars because my family couldn't afford it. I did attend brownies for a few sessions but when they started asking money for uniform and trips I was out. I can definitely understand that though as my daughter started brownies last year and every other week they were asking for money for something. Thankfully we are in a better financial position than my parents were.

I had swimming lessons and then did all the medals and picking up bricks but that was before secondary school. I joined a running club because my sister was really good at it and then just kind of got sucked into it because it turned out I was really good at long jump and 800m. My brother did Soccer Skills every Saturday. We had a local youth club but my Mum wouldn't let me go that often.

Back in the 80s, there was loads of stuff to do (and I grew up in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere) but we obviously didn't realize that it was going to explode into what we have now!

Yep. Guides, swimming, music etc. Mixture of lifts from my dad or my friends mum and walking. DP same age did v little though. I did lots of things and wanted my kids to have same experience.

Nope. We were a non-driving, single-mother family so there was no money or means to do anything. The only "activity" we did after school was get dragged onto church buses and be taken away to be "saved". Presbyterian on a Monday. Methodist on a Wednesday. Pentecostal on a Friday.

I always had nightmares after Friday. 😳

Same here with the non-driver single mother. Not so much the church stuff! It did limit what you could do though.

I remember going to karate with a friend, must have been around 91/92, but I didn't like it.

I never did anything organised. Once a week, probably about 94, I'd go swimming with a few friends, but it was just us getting on a bus and going along to the local pool ourselves.

DS does all kinds now. Sports training three nights a week, games on weekends. Guitar lessons, after school clubs. The trade off being he doesn't have anywhere near the freedom I had at his age.

I did loads (usually 3-4 at the same time, not all of these at once)

brownies/guides
ballet/tap/jazz
music lessons
horseback riding - though only in school holidays as we didn't live near stables
theatre production

Ballet and piano for a while, but I disliked both and was wildly untalented so it didn't last long. Brownies for a couple of years, but then swim and horseriding took over my schedule. I still enjoy both.

Limited by what was within walking distance, ie available in the local church hall.
Both parents worked full-time and quite often weekends, but working class roles, one car and didn't have a lot of time on their hands.

Badminton 🏸, Girls Brigade and Sunday school.
My parents offered to get us music lessons and i really regret not doing that. Actually it was the fear of going alone that stopped me😕.

We did do lots of relatively low costs days out various parks with picnics or NT type places. And my parents took us swimming regularly but no formal lessons.

Reading the thread I think there is a massive wealth divide.
Those with mums who were SAHMs with transport. I'm amazed how many did horse riding, its not cheap and tends to be out of the way places requiring transport.

We have more disposable income than my parents did and my kids do so many things. Swim, music lessons, Scouts, tennis.

I wanted riding and guitar lessons but didn't get them.

I did do Brownies and Guides and Ju-Jitsu.

We used to go swimming after Ju-Jitsu because the pool was in the sports centre and we could get in without paying, but it was more of a splash about.

I was born in 1966. I walked to brownies on my own and got myself to Ju-Jitsu on the bus.

My dad would drive me and two friends to guides and the mother of one of the others collected us.

I did ballet and tap at 4-5yrs, swimming club and galas at 7-10yrs, horse riding at 7-9yrs, piano lessons 8-10 and guides at 11.

None of which I really enjoyed or wanted to do. I wanted to do karate or gymnastics.

My brother was a swimmer and trained 7x a week plus weekend galas all over the country. Too much IMO.

I went the opposite way for mine, waited until they told me they wanted to do X and stopped when they had enough. DD1 did brownies for a year and Gymnastics for 3yrs, DD2 did Gymnastics for a year.

Not all at the same time, and some provided via school: brownies, dancing, two instruments, orchestra, choir, racket sports, netball, hockey, swimming, drama. Both parents worked so it filled the time. Loved it and miss it.

No, nothing like that because we were poor. Kids get a lot more opportunities now, which is good.

There are lots more things in place to allow kids from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to be less excluded than they used to be.

Swimming (which I'm forever grateful for!)
Piano but I sacked that off after a few months
Never had an inclination for Brownies or Guides, despite my family affiliation
Mostly I liked just chilling out after school, same as now really 😆

My son has sports many times a week..

I did brownies for a bit. Also went to woodcraft folk with a friend. I only did things that were free or very very cheap, and if someone else’s parents were happy to take me. If there were trips I didn’t go, so often felt left out or on the periphery of groups. No swimming, music lessons, sport etc. I did do language classes for a couple of years in my father’s native language. I hated them! They were free too.

My DD started swimming asap and piano lessons age 5. She loves both. We would go more but I work full time so there’s an after school daily but those include French lessons and a coding club.

I did swimming, gymnastics, dance, and horseback riding for a bit until it was just my mom and I and money was gone.

Then I went to a preforming arts High school so got to continue dance and musical theater for free.

I did netball, cricket, football, choir and majorettes.

I went to Brownies but nothing else.

I remember most of my friends doing things like gymnastics, dance and piano lessons.

I did lots of sports - swimming, track and field, squash, netball, sailing, rowing, etc. Oh and french too.

I did ballet until I persuaded my parents to let me do piano lessons instead. Swimming lessons. Recorder lessons (at a music school not at my primary school). Girls Brigade. These were early 90s. Later in the 90s I did artistic roller skating and a volleyball course but that was only a few months long.
My brothers all did piano too and boys brigade. My parents were very encouraging with this stuff.

I did loads, at least one things per evening and after school too, in fact there were more things available to do for children in our area 30 years ago than there are now which is very sad.

I did piano and choir. I remember my classmates going to guides and ballet.

yes- lots of different types of dance and theatre lessons. Ballet, tap, modern, commercial jazz, ballroom, latin, freestyle, musical theatre and drama. At one point I was out at a class 7 days a week- my parents weren’t well off, but they clearly saw I loved it and the benefit of it, I did cut down a bit when I started secondary school and dropped the drama and musical theatre classes during my gcse’s.

Older than you but did Brownies then Guides. Dad took us swimming every week until I was about 12. Also had riding lessons and learnt the flute for a while.

Brownies/Guides, Swimming lessons, Tennis

Ballet - forced to do it for 2.5 years and hated it
Piano - forced to do it for 3 years and hated it

I wanted to learn Karate with my friends but DM said it wasn’t ladylike so I was not allowed. I’ve taken this up as an adult and love it.

I hated being forced to learn ballet and piano so much that I never practiced unless forced and never sat exams as I wasn’t even good enough for Grade 1. What a waste of money and I don’t know what my parents were thinking wasting money like that. As a consequence of my experience I said to DH that DC can quit an activity after the payment period has finished but I will never force this attitude on them.