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.

I grew up in the 70s and 80s. I attended Brownies for a little while but I never enjoyed it and left after about a year. No other activities, one of four siblings and my parents wouldn’t or couldn’t pay for anything. I would have liked to have learnt a musical instrument, maybe piano.

Brownies until I got too old and they kicked me out 🤣 didn’t want to go to guides as was scared of the older kids.

We didn’t have a car and lived in a village so only other activity was going to Sunday school, even though we were a house of non-believers.

I read a lot but it would have been nice to develop a skill or pastime (I still don’t really do anything other than read in my downtime)

Nope. Nothing. And neither did anyone I knew. Just got home, put TV on (back in the day that kids TV was on from 3 til about 6). It was bloody brilliant 😅 still managed to turn in to a decent human being although I can't play a musical instrument, don't know any ballet moves etc.

I find it so weird that kids do so much nowadays (including my own!) it's just kind of expected.

I do regret not learning the piano. Always wanted to learn that.

I was a teen in the 80’s, in the late 70’s I had gym club for times per week, country dancing and Brownies. I did various other clubs for maybe half a term such as photography as that was all you were allowed to do as it was popular. I did recorder club but didn’t join the orchestra as gym club took up a lot of my evenings.
In the school holidays I’d sign up for various things such as week long tennis courses. When I was a teen myself and all my neighbours walked to a secondary school a couple of miles away and did activities such as trampolining and badminton, this was during the six week holidays .
From a young age I went swimming a lot but I didn’t do in a club or swimming lessons. When I was about 9 I’d get the bus, swim 60 lengths and come back home with the mile badge. I also did brass rubbings in a library that was next door to the swimming pool.
I lived on a very deprived council estate and the school received extra funding to provide lots of clubs.
I has a lot of freedom and remember buying a red bus rover tickets for 75p when I was in my last year at primary school and going with various friends into central London, walking around Covent Garden and going to the museums. I did this in my teens too but I’d go on the train.
I was always doing something reading, sewing, making outfits out of old curtains and patchwork cushions, pressing flowers etc.
My DM was a young teen mum herself and really into education, she encouraged me to do lots of activities in and out of the house.

I was born in 1981. My sibling and I did weekly swimming, dance, piano and an orchestral instrument. We both played team sports through school, with matches on Saturday mornings. In the school holidays we sometimes did things like a week-long sports activity - football, canoeing etc.

Very similar to my own children now, really.

I grew up in the 70s and 80s and did zillions of activities. It was a very middle class thing I think but not unusual.

1980s and yes. Swimming, brownies, guides and fencing

My parents made us do swimming (sensible) then we got to do 1 other activity too

I did brownies and trampolining -but not at the same time

Yes in the 80s/early 90s I did brownies/guides and music lessons on two instruments. I remember plenty of girls in my class did ballet or other dance classes too.

I played badminton at the weekend but apart from that, no. I wanted piano lessons but for some reason wasn't allowed. At some point I started to go 'on and on' about it and my dad begrudgingly sent me to the cheapest teacher he could find, who must have been born in about 1883 and told me that lessons were pointless because a) my bones were already grown and b) I didn't have a piano to practice on. So that was short-lived.

Other kids I knew did horse riding, violin, netball... I always felt like such an outsider.

I did Brownies and later Guides, violin lessons, Saturday morning music school and youth choir.

I did horse riding and about a months worth of piano lessons at primary age and my sister did some gymnastics and brownies. At secondary I was in an after school netball team for a bit but that was it.
other than that I played out with my friends or watched telly on the sofa/read a book.

Oh the joy of The Gay Gordons and The Dashing White Sergeant. I craved a school disco.

Why did those of us at school circa 1980 do country dancing as part of the curriculum? Looking back it makes no sense! At a school in Liverpool why did 9 year olds
need to learn country dancing?! It was on a Fri afternoon, we had to push the tables back to make space. The only name I remember is The Gay Gordon's!

DC in the 8os did many activities; my DD did swimming, ballet, Brownies, flute, piano, Guides, Youth orchestra and Gospel Choir all outside school.
DS was less interested but gave Cubs a try, played the cornet and enjoyed fencing and swimming lessons.

Oh we loved Country Dancing. St my convent school the prefects would organise in in the hall on wet lunchtimes. That was in the days when lunchtime was about 1 1/4 hours long so
there was time to eat, socialise, attend a club, not just throw pasta in your face standing in the cold.

Country dancing! Had forgotten about that. “And then we do si do…”

Born in 1963, my family started out working class but benefitted from the rapid social change of that time and there was enough money for me to do all sorts of stuff.

I did ballet and tap between age 5 and 12, learnt the violin (starting at 8) then took up viola and was in a local Youth orchestra, which did an international tour each year. My school (which was a very ordinary state comprehensive) put us through all the local music festivals, including choir, orchestra, recorder ensembles, consorts and solo competitions. I also had some piano lessons for a short while.

I'm not sporty but I learned to swim properly at the local swimming club from the age of 7. I did a bit of gymnastics, but didn't stick at it. And I tried Judo a bit as a teenager.

I was in Brownies and Guides. And I was in the school Bridge club, which was really just for fun (run by an enthusiastic teacher) but we all had a trip to London to see an international competition, where we saw Omar Sharif play.

That sounds quite OTT thinking back on it, but it did all fit together. My older brothers didn't do anything like as much as that, but they would have been able to join things, if they'd wanted to.

I did swimming, brownies and ballet. Guides and piano when I was a bit older. I was not allowed to do a gymnastics class that I wanted, but can't remember if it was the cost or the hassle of getting me there.

DS has multi-sports, swimming and one extra. We are encouraging him to do a term of "something different" each time, though choices get limited with two evenings taken up.

Me too. I spent most of my time after school or at weekends at the library or my grandparents place reading books.
My parents couldn't afford any other activities and couldn't afford to buy me books to read at home, so I went where the books were.
Looking back it was very depressing childhood and it wasn't until I went to uni that I realised how much I'd missed out on. I'd never even eaten spaghetti bolognaise, had rice or curry....never been away from home over night, never had a holiday or went in a school trip.

Yes - brownies, guides, swimming. Flute.

Yes - piano, chess, gymnastics, swimming, ballet and trampolining.

In answer to the "do you still do any of these as adults"
No. Not in the same way.

I either don't have the time or money for dance classes now. When the dc were small I didn't have time or money. When they were at school and I was working I had money but not time. Now I'm unemployed for MH reasons so have time but not money.

I do occasionally go to barn dances though, so my country dance lessons come in handy.

But I dont think it matters anyway. I've got life long friends from some of my childhood clubs. I learnt a lot from the clubs. And I have a million happy memories.

I did brownies and school choir. My brother did scouts

I was born in 1978, I did Brownies, Disco Dancing, Youth Club and Clarinet lessons at school. Working class background, lived on a council estate. We had summer holidays and family days out but the days out were for special occasions. The clubs were all at the local community hall a 10min walk away.