To wonder if Sundays in the 80s were restful or boring

[IlovedLadybirdbooks]

Large stores were closed on Sundays. Eating out was a rare treat. No Deliveroo. 3 TV channels to choose from. People got their exercise from a walk or cycling rather than the gym. Children played out rather than being taken to organised activities.

Just pondering ... were Sundays more relaxing or a bit of a drag?

Boring when I was a kid.

In what way?

A drag. Kids at least had the chance to run feral for a bit, but the adults just stared into space until it was time to cook a roast and watch Songs of Praise.

Hmm, fairly boring in my recollection. I used to go to church in the mornings and then watch The Waltons on tv. Afternoons mostly spent at home. My Mum used to work some weekends so my Dad might take us out somewhere. We didn't have relatives very nearby so wouldn't usually see them on a Sunday. My Mum usually did a roast in the evening.

Sunday was spent recovering from Saturday and 'looking forward' to going to work on monday.

For kids it was truly amazing as were generally ignored and left to run amok outside

I’m not sure what my parents did on Sundays. I suspect my mum did the garden and my dad fixed things. My dad sometimes took us for long walks

people were generally happier and calmer!

Boring. Songs of praise, antiques road show, last of the summer wine was on TV and was not something I wanted to watch. Although you could listen to the charts on radio one.

Boring as hell, I was a teenager in the 80s. No shops open, no internet, 3 channels which had to be decided between the family as only one TV. Sundays always seemed really long.

Very, very boring as a kid. Hated them

It was the same as a Saturday for us - do whatever we liked. We weren’t constrained by a Sunday roast so my parents were free too.

It’s all relative to what you know at that point in time though, isn’t it? In 100 years what we have access to now will seem boring too, the same as if you look back to 1926 and think what did they do without TV, mobile phones, games consoles, gyms etc (maybe they talked to each other!!).

I grew up in the 1980s and I loved Sundays. I'd stay at my grandparents on a Saturday night then, on a Sunday morning, I'd walk to the local newsagent with my gramp, we'd buy my 3 comics (Beano, Dandy and Suzy magazine!), some sweets and a fizzy drink for me and a Milky Bar. We'd then go and pick my brothers up from my home and we'd all go over to the local playing field and fly our kite, which, usually got tangled up and we'd spend most of the morning trying to untangle the damn thing.
Then, it was back to nan and gramp's for a roast dinner and we'd stay for the afternoon, until after the muppet show!
If I wasn't doing that, I was playing out in the street with my friends who all lived locally back then. A few years later, I'd be in my room listening to Wham! or Shakin' Stevens on my 'ghetto blaster' - which was really just a red cassette player with a radio and I'd be reading Smash Hits or No 1 magazine!
Sunday evenings were spent drying my hair in front of the gas fire and watching Bullseye on the telly whilst eating crumpets, followed by Jamaican Ginger Cake warmed up and served with Birds Eye custard!
The 80s were amazing and Sundays were relaxing - I still remember the fuss/excitement when the local Co-op opened for the first time on a Sunday!

We used to visit relatives, have friends or family round for tea, gardening, playing in the garden, visiting the park, out for the day to the countryside or seaside. It was a relaxed day, the majority of shops were closed so the roads and streets were quieter.

It just had a dull, heavy feeling about it which spoilt the day a bit knowing everything was shut. We did nice things like play out, go and see family etc, it's not like I was sat staring into space but I do recall that strong empty, pervasive boredom feeling about it. Not that boredom is necessarily a bad thing, it can lead to creativity and imagination, but I can remember the feeling very well even though it was 40+ years ago.

I remember the 80s fondly myself! Always out on my bike or roller skates. But TV was rubbish then.

I've found some school books from the 70s when I was at primary school. On Monday mornings we had to write about our weekends.

I'd go to Sunday School which was nice and sociable. Ride my bike. Play with friends/siblings. Read. Draw. Relatives would visit without making an appointment. Help Dad wash his car. Peel the potatoes to help Mum with Sunday tea.

Obviously didn't do all that every Sunday but it doesn't seem boring to me.

Oh, also, recording the Top 40 Chart off Radio 1 on a Sunday evening - I still remember hearing certain songs for the first time like that!

Both.

Strange coincidence as I was just talking to someone about this yesterday, in the the context of smartphones and some DC being constantly entertained and stimulated.

Sundays as a child in the 80s were for me painfully boring for kids but the adults loved it. Late lunch as it was a full roast then watch a film in the afternoon.

My parents would often have a little nap in the afternoon and I used to find it so irritating as I was expected to keep quiet for half an hour and I'd think 'when I grow up i'll never waste my time sleeping in the day' :) How wrong I was..

I liked them. We used to go swimming in the morning with dad, then go to my paternal grandparents for lunch for 3-4 hours, then onto my maternal grandparents for tea. Antiques roadshow, ski Sunday, then for a walk down by the sea before going home. Not boring, just a slower pace.

I found Sundays SOOOOOO boring! But also, I quite literally grew up in a pub (my parents ran it) so it’s not like I had nothing to do! When licensing laws changed to allow the pub to stay open all day on a Sunday, I think that’s when it improved - although it meant work for me lol. I was the pub cleaner on a Sunday morning, then I worked in the kitchen with my mum from 12.

Usually on my way back home from a Northern soul all niter and suffering the consequences of amphetamine comedown.
Once back home the last thing I wanted to watch was last of the summer wine.
I hated that twee shit with a passion.

I think it depends on where you lived and how old you were.

In the 80s I was a student in Newcastle and Sundays involved the Quayside Market, the Side Gallery for a photographic exhibition, maybe a arthouse film at the Tyneside cinema. We really thought we were all that, Andy Warhol meets Siouxsie Sioux.

Back at home I’d have been dying of boredom, and stopped really going there for all but short visits when I was in my early 20s. Even in the 1980s there was such a thing as enduring the tedium of one’s parents’ dysfunctional marriage behind closed doors.

Boring as fuck.

After lunch, dad would take a nap on the sofa and mum would put a cushion on the floor and sleep too. We had to be quiet.

God knows why they didnt just go to bed. At least then we could have watched telly from the sofa.

Douglas Adams called it the ‘long dark tea-time of the soul’.

People were generally happier and calmer!

Utter rubbish. My parents were worried about nuclear war and industry being destroyed by the Tory government, among other things. My dad was out of work for months at a time and the mortgage had a 15% interest rate so things were really tight. Society was horribly homophobic and sexism was rife as was smoking and drinking alcohol to excess. People were no happier and calmer than now.

There were 4 channels on TV for most of the 80s!
I was a teenager and enjoyed Sunday's. Highlight of the day day was the Top 40 count down on Radio 1 at 4pm. The excitement each week was brilliant.
When my parents dragged me out to a stately home or something we would beg to listen to it on the way home, usually without success.
I did homework. Saw my boyfriend. Helped in the house/ garden and read a lot of books.
It was a good day. Proper family time with no distractions.