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?

We used to get hauled out on family days out. Yes, stately homes were often involved. Staying at home was a luxury.

He was spot on about that, as he was about many things!

Dead boring.

Yep, the Greenham Common peace camp actions and the Miners’ Strike (and associated fundraisers) were huge events in the early 1980s. I was involved in a couple of things.

Life still largely like this in some parts of Europe. Shops close, it's not the done thing to do DIY or mow your lawn or anything like that. There are more rules but I forget. More tv channels I guess but mostly when we're visiting family Sundays are days to go out together for a walk and have a good family meal etc. It can be annoying at first when you remember you can't just pop to the shop for that ingredient you forgot, but on the whole I do enjoy Sundays abroad!

So boring-uh. My parents used to make a big deal of Sunday breakfast which seemed to take forever to cook involved a lot of Dad bellowing and us having to sit at the table waiting for him to faff and contained foods they loved and I hate. Eggs, Sausages, Mushrooms, Beans, tinned plum tomatoes. I was left with bacon and toast or fried bread and if I was lucky a potato cake or fried new potatoes.
Then there was homework before I was allowed out and by that time all my mates would be in their Nans having a roast lunch. Lunch on Sunday in our house wasn’t allowed as we couldn’t possibly be hungry after the massive breakfast, glossing over the fact I didn’t eat most of it.
Later there’d be a walk or chores. Both equally tedious. Dinner and then something shite on TV before a bath and early night to get ready for school.

Yep.
My dad was a miner. The strike was a bloody awful time.

I was a baby in the 80s but I remember hating Sundays when I was in school. Especially secondary school when you would put off doing homework until the last minute then start into it on Sunday evening. I would hear the theme tune for coronation street beginning and feel an awful dread come upon me in the evening. I also found Mass torturously boring as a child

I've started watching Last of the Summer Wine now as a 50-something and I love it, but I know that back in the 1980s, I would have hated it because it's full of older people! There's something quite comforting about it now - even if Compo is definitely a sex pest!

Sunday School then mainly re-enacting the events of the A Team from the night before with my DB. Or out on my bike.

I remember that they were very boring. Nothing on TV, no shops open, long roast dinner with elderly relatives even in summer when I just wanted a sandwich.

Also the antiques roadshow on a Sunday evening playing in our house that was another thing that added to the dread

There was 4 TV channels from 1982 and TBF ch4 brought some good things! The Wonder Years was on on a Sunday!!
Pubs/clubs only opened from 12 till 2 then home for lunch back to the pub 7 till 10.30pm! Watched a lot of football on TV. Had a lot of homework to do
You could do what you wanted but on a whole yes life was more boring. Rainy winter Sunday's could drag but you learnt to get what you wanted out of life.
I have never been bored I just get up and do something or read.

some DC being constantly entertained and stimulated

I don't think DD (22) has had a waking moment when she hasn't been aurally or visually stimulated.

I was a kid and was boring. The adults were busy with chores and getting the house/ themselves ready for the work week. Some of my friends were visiting their grandparents so usually there were too few kids to play with. There was 1 hr of kid tv on Sundays where I grew up.

I couldn't remember when Channel 4 entered our lives, bringing Brookside with it!

Corrie was on on Mondays and Wednesdays in the 1980s.

I worked as a retail manager in the 1980s. Stores weren’t open in England on a Sunday so it was an actual day off but there wasn’t a lot to do other than your laundry and getting ready for the working week.

The charts 5 till 7pm. Massive event.
And I remember that being the time my brother's and I would all end up with it all ending in tears. The boredom and over hyped. So then it would be bath time! The one bath a week which fortunately at some point got extended to 2 or 3 baths a week! About 1985😁

I was baby in the 80s so cant remember much of Sundays, but this all sounds hellish. I still hate Sundays now, the working week is long enough without a whole day to "prepare" for it.

Sunday shopping laws broke Sunday forever.

I loved Sundays as a kid in the 80's.
It would either mean playing out with friends, visiting a relative or "going for a drive" to the countryside for a walk and picnic, then home so that Mum could cook a roast and do the garden, Dad did some DIY and I attempted to tape the Top 40 without the DJ ruining the song by talking over it!

I think life was slower then and I could look back and find it boring but I wasn't bored at the time and it was everything I crave now: a day of family life tootling along happily.

We got our first McDonald's back then. Sometimes family lunches (poor dad had to remember the order and queue up)

but this all sounds hellish

In what way? Because shops were closed or because we didn't have Netflix and Internet?

If you still hate Sundays now - why?

So so dull. Swimming with Dad first thing but at about 7am so that all the fun stuff was done by 8am. Help with the garden or washing the car. Rota of which grandparents and other elderly relatives to visit which mostly consisted of being very quiet, very bored and eating vegetables that had been boiled for several hours. If we were lucky it was a home week when vegetables were only boiled for 30 minutes. Back home, TV was dull, I didn't get a stereo in my room till the 90s so no top 40 for me. Bath night and the nit comb.

My DC don't know how lucky they are.

That's why I was talking about it. I know it's not just DCs either. I see plenty of adults of all ages glued to their phones. I even see people walking around watching something with the audio playing which is not only dangerous but bloody hell, can they not even walk to the shops without watching something on the 'phone?