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?

Can't plough through every post here, but it looks as if no-one's mentioning homework! My dominant memory of childhood Sundays is having a heap of homework which always got left until Sunday afternoon/evening. Which is why I don't remember Sunday night telly at all: I'd be resentfully in a bedroom doing equations and the life cycle of the amoeba!

1978-1983 I was at secondary school so it was typically this:

7.30am - get up, walk to newsagent for the Sunday People for my dad.
9.30am - Mass
11am - back home. Bicker with siblings (youngest of six).
12.30pm - Sunday roast dinner.
1pm - repeats of Thunderbirds on telly.
2pm - everyone else watching the Sunday afternoon film, me in kitchen doing my art homework.
4pm - my dad makes a boiled egg for himself and my eldest brother. Nobody else gets one and indeed none of us eat anything else for the rest of the day.
5pm - Record the Top 40 on Radio 1.
7pm - The Muppets on telly.
Read book and simultaneously watch whatever comes on telly, Sunday Night at the London Palladium or etc - if a channel needs changing, that’s my job as the youngest.
9-10pm - bed.

I loved Sundays as a kid, had to go to church (which was boring) but we always had a roast. Then I'd play out in the afternoon, come in get a bath and my hair washed, then tea and toast watching You've Been Framed before reading in bed.

Boring AF.

I can't understand why some posters are being so mean about those that had happy childhood memories

I know. Calling the poster who got to ride a horse in exchange for mucking out "privileged."

I loved Sundays as a child.
Homework, reading books and lunch with Nan.

Boring. Worst day of the week

As a child, slightly boring. Church in the morning (yawn) and then grandparents in the afternoon, where we would get irn bru and to visit the corner shop for sweets. Extra fun if cousins were there too. Back home was boring and we always had meat for dinner (I hated meat, am now vegetarian), and then a pudding like apple pie or Sara Lee gateau. Bath, the.n bed, with heartbeat in the background

It’s a day of rest. Until about 6pm when the dread of going back to work or school kicks in.

I, personally, prefer a Saturday.

They were unbelievably boring and depressing, especially in the winter. Nowhere to go, nothing to do. The only relief was about once every six weeks when we'd visit my cousins. In the summer we could sit in the garden and also my parents were more inclined to take us out. But most of the year it was very, very boring.

Omg, this is so accurate!

That awful feeling when the Heartbeat theme tune played.. school in the morning ugh

I think my mum spent a few hours ironing on Sundays. The treat was going to the newsagents for a magazine and chocolate bar.

So boring as a kid.
I lived 2 miles from the local village and had no neighbours which didn't help.Felt like I was waiting for the dreaded bath night and school the next day.I still get the dread if DH watches sport on TV on a Sunday afternoon.
I moved to London in my early 20s just before shops started opening on Sundays and that was pretty cool as you could walk up an empty Oxford Street - just a few buses and skateboarders taking advantage of the space .Quiet London was nice.Funnily enough I'd quite like a day of no shops now.

Sundays early 80s to early 90s northern England.
My mums family lived a few hours north and once a month we went there on a Sunday. Saw huge family and often got a big bin liner of hand me downs!
would het home and it would be bath time plus looking through all the “new” clothes then watch something like The Borrowers or Antiques Roadshow.
I am still quite a traditionalist now about Sundays and don’t particularly like anything heavy or demanding on a Sunday evening

Our Sunday centred around a family dinner. We always had a roast dinner, with Yorkshire puddings. My favourite was roast lamb with mint sauce. We also had a proper pudding with custard. My favourite was blackberry and apple crumble. After clearing up and doing the washing up, we would take the dog to our local park. I loved Sundays. 🩷

Really enjoyed mine and think it’s a shame everything is now open.
We used to visit my nan in the morning and then go to my aunt’s for a roast, then home. Then it was either sat in the garden/ read/ get things ready for Monday, bath and bed.

Roast dinners, mum doing a pile of ironing, whole day of homework for me, boring stuff on tv. I enjoyed the roast but didn't enjoy Sundays more generally...

So boring!! I remember what seemed like endless drives in the countrywide which always made me feel car sick. This was sometimes coupled with a trip to Do it All or B&Q as the only places open. I was about 12 when they brought in Sunday opening. So much better although my parents were still keen on Sunday afternoon drives!

Well I had a wonderful 80s in my 20s, lots of excesses and Sunday spent recovering in bed. It probably would have been boring if I was school age though.

Admittedly this was early 90s (but still before 1994) but I had one of those large watches that was on trend. It had a Forever Friends bear on it, but no numbers or markings on the display. It was winter, so dark outside and I'd been mooching around doing something like reading or drawing, lost track of time and couldn't work out if it was now 20 past 4 or 20 past 5 from the lack of clarity on the display so asked DM what the time was.

This little non-event is only remarkable for the fact that I've now spent the last 30+ years with DM being convinced that I can't tell the time and I still can't convince her otherwise 🙄

I have no other issues with telling the time other than an ambiguous watch at an awkward, tedious time of day with no daylight or lifestyle cues. It was quite a specific combination.
(Oh and she's also the kind of person where you have to remember the formula for each clock in the house, if it works at all, if it's BST/ GMT and how many minutes off each time zone each one is 🤯)

Well they were both restful and boring really. Nothing to do, nowhere to go, so it was lie in, Sunday roast with grandparents, homework or a film on the telly/from Blockbusters if we were lucky, Sunday tea time (picky bits before they were known as such), Allo Allo, antiques roadshow, bath and bed.
Felt Boring but was actually a good reset for the week ahead and a nice bit of family time.

Exactly this and I seem to recall that in the 70s Sunday TV was really good but I had homework to do.

FWIW, I'm 66 and still go to church and try to avoid the shops on Sundays. We also have a Sunday roast (except in the summer when it morphs into a barbecue).

However, I don't ever recall Sundays as boring: catching up with friends, day time parties/lunches, tennis, swimming, good walk, other interests, etc. They have always been quite social days afaiac.

Bullseye, tea on the tea trolley, family walks, taping the charts…yep pretty boring.

This sounds absolutely wonderful and made me feel so cosy!