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?

Happy memories. I used to walk to the shop with Mum and my sister to buy the paper, then we’d help our mum cook the Sunday dinner and make a pudding. Then we’d go into the living room to play/read and sit with my Dad while he watched Weekend World, the Sunday politics programme with Brian Walden. It could get a bit boring then.
Then we’d have our dinner, wash up, have our pudding, have a cup of tea, sit and talk/read or watch sport on the TV. Probably have a walk or play a game. Have another cup of tea together. In the summer we’d sit in the garden.
We’d help mum get the tea, clear up then watch the Antiques Roadshow and the Sunday night drama on TV.

There might have been parts of the day that were boring, but all this time spent talking and doing things together really bonded us as a family, and having time to read is wonderful if you’re a reader.

I try hard to replicate with my kids but they’re always on screens and not interested in helping to cook or wash up, which they seem to regard as a chore. We liked helping our mum and being with our parents - guess there wasn’t a ton else to do!

Not in my house - I was an adult with a child. No shopping obviously, I still don't have Deliveroo or any other take aways. Fewer TV channels and not on all day but we went out to places of interest - a farm park , a ride on the new Docklands Light Railway, meeting friends etc. When I moved out of London we did different but similar things. I didn't cook a roast and we didn't watch Songs of Praise.

Edit: I've just remembered I did sometimes cook a roast when my parents came over but it wasn't that much of a chore. We'd go to Greenwich Park with my daughter's little bike first.

70s-80s. So bloody boring plus school dread. Used to go to grandparents where we’d have 3 course meal inc roast, then in the evening a cold salad. This was the good bit. Sometimes they’d take me for a walk to the park or sweetshop while my grandad did the pools. Otherwise we’d have to sit and listen to the monotonous voice reading out the results. Then it would be endless shit telly: delights inc Harry Secombe, Gloria Hunniford, Antiques Roadshow, Bullseye (loved), Onedin Line. On and on it went. Then the drive home with the school dreads. Nothing was open. Even now I resent the late opening/early closing and get work dreads on a Sunday.

Would still like to know - what do people do on Sundays now that isn’t “boring”?

I like long walks in the Lakes District but that’s not much different to what I could do in the 80s. Sometimes I have a cleaning day whoopee-do!

Monday morning dread hasn’t changed

I was very busy in the early 80s, raising my young family. Later on, on Sundays, the children used to play out or play indoors in their rooms. If they were bored, I don't remember their saying so.

I hated Sundays when I was a child. We weren't allowed to eat anything after breakfast, but Sunday lunch was never ready until about 3pm. I just remember being starving hungry during the wait. Sunday meant my dad was home and not going into work, so that meant staying out of his way if you didn't want to be shouted at. All my siblings were home, too, which meant having to avoid my bully older brother, too.

If the weather was ok, I used to take myself off on my bike, or just hang around the local park on my own. It was better than being at home even though I often felt lonely.

Well, we have a lot more entertainment now

It was depressing and dull for me.
We were allowed to play out on our own but some of the kids in the area were bullies and I was always nervous someone was going to start on me.
Sometimes I went up and down on roller skates but it was fairly boring.
My dad was an alcoholic and his daytime drinking started with a can of beer on a Sunday when he got up at around noon so that made the day tense.
My mam worked full time and she did her own thing all day and dominated the tv, watching stuff we couldn’t bear.
For a while I used to help my granny up the big hill to Mass in the morning which wasn’t exactly a laugh riot.
The things I looked forward to on a Sunday were a cooked breakfast because it was the only day we got one and a dessert after dinner (also the only day we got that). Then it would turn out to be “flan” or trifle or something which I hated.

I enjoyed Sundays, I took part in sports club on Sunday mornings, met with friends on the afternoons and we often went to pizza places and eat.

I didn't watch tv much, so wouldn't have been bothered about how many channels, I still don't watch much tv now and have two streaming channels which I need to get rid of as its a waste.

I worked in a pub in the mid 80s and we were doing 200 meals on a Sunday lunch time, we had a bar, lounge and restaurant. The lounge was the most popular and the pub did a good turnover.

I learnt to drive in an Asda carpark at 16

We had a shop that opened 6-11 on Sunday, dad usually ran it by himself while we went to Mass then home, snooze then either mum had done a roast or we would go for a " run out" in the car. Sandwhiches and warm ish cordial whilst sitting in a car looking at a view- we were seldom allowed to actually get out if the car!. Then home by 4 - Id take the dog on a looooong walk then home for Sunday tea. I hated it but it was dads only time off in the week so can see why he just wanted to relax.

Mine were nice, church in the morning then we spent the afternoon either going out for Sunday lunch or visiting friends/relatives.
i feel like “visiting” was much more of an activity than it is these days.

Must have been around same sort of time as me, as Sunday mornings were usually weekly bath and hairwash, followed by the Waltons then packed off to Sunday school in the afternoon.

It felt boring (rubbish tv) but I think I spent a lot of time playing with my siblings, visits from grandparents/aunt, so in retrospect it was pretty nice and a genuine calm moment in the week.

Yeah but I can binge watch a series once or twice a year and that’s plenty - feels like such a wasted day to watch tv. And often there’s not the same excitement in discussing the latest episode nowadays cos everyone’s watching at different times

My recollection was that Sundays had such a distinct routine to them in the 70s and early 80s:

Whole family went to church.
Stopped on the way home at the newsagents (only shop open until midday) and collected the Sunday papers.
Had a scrappy late breakfast.
All females in the house immediately starting preparing lunch, while the males either sorted out the fire or put the garden furniture out or did some other male appropriate task.
Some elderly relative or old family friend would then arrive.
There would be a drink and polite chit chat for a bit.
Sunday lunch was served and eaten - for some reason, despite no cooking involvement, my Dad would carve the meat!
Those who could would then go for a walk, non walkers read the newspapers
Tea and cakes were served at 4pm.
5pm elderly relative or old family friend would go.
House returned to normal, last bits of homework would done, general prep for the week ahead.
The whole family would then sit in front of the TV and watch whatever was on for a few hours. All of us together would watch exactly the same programmes sitting in our designated places in the living room.

Rinse and repeat until I went to uni!!!!! We did sometimes go to other relatives or friends houses for lunch, but it followed the exact same pattern.

Definitely boring. It’s why I’m not much of a homebody now.

Mum used to take us all to the park, there was a massive paddling pool and boating lake. When we got home we’d all bake for tea and sit chatting with mum and dad, we talked about anything and everything. Much much better than taking the kids to ikea for a day out.

My comparison:

Now: I get up early on Sundays and go for a run with the dog - we have fields behind our house.
The kids potter about doing their own thing and then we have lunch. In the afternoon we watch a film together - there are loads of options we can choose from including new releases.
In the evening we might go for another walk in the countryside or play games or go to the beach (we all love going to the beach in the evenings).

Then: as a kid I lived in an industrial area with no green space so I spent most of the day cooped up inside. My parents would watch boring TV like songs of praise or antiques road show. Every weekend we'd go to my grandparents house and the adults would talk amongst themselves whilst I sat there bored out of my mind with literally nothing to do. I am an only child so I had no siblings to play with. I had to sit there listening to them ramble on about the next door neighbours and where they were going on holiday and oh did you know that Sue down the road has had to go to the doctors after being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and her husband frank has had to have a mole removed blah blah blah
Then back home to watch more boring shit on tv and I'd try to tape the charts.

I far prefer our Sundays now 😆

So so boring. The TV was a whole level of boring as well

Both.

some of my absolute happiest childhood memories are family Sundays - a picnic outing ( jam butties mostly ) ( edit we did have a car by the 80s) or just cooking with my parents and further back with my nana. I guess parents were less rushed on a Sunday so had time to let me help.

on a more normal Sunday we might visit nana and I’d get my homework done

i think the boredom and free time did spark creativity in me / edit to add and I took a book everywhere

and listening to the chart show I think?

Gym, game of padel or racquetball, cinema,
theatre, museum, drive into another city for dinner, shopping, lunch, meet friends for brunch and a walk, coffee out.

choosing from a billion on demand channels, streaming any movie or downloading any book from kindle

getting a take away or popping to the supermarket without a second thought to get something you fancy

catching up with admin- paying bills, researching holidays etx

can you really not imagine what people do to prevent boredom? 😂

I hated them as a kid, but now I love a day of reading, drinking tea, mucking about in the garden etc.

Not boring, just a slower pace.

That's the key, a slower pace, not the frantic way people now seem to live then complain about it. Children now expect to be forever on the go, they have loads of toys but rarely have time to play with them because parents feel they must be taking them out rather than staying home. Shops were generally closed, I recall wanting a Coke or something and waiting until 7pm when the off licence opened again.

I loved weekends as a child in the 80s. Church then a Sunday roast for lunch every week. Playing out with friends if the weather was fine, or helping in the house/garden. Reading, playing music, radio, watching Antiques Roadshow show and Songs of Praise. Arts and crafts if it was wet.

It was a happy time. We weren’t poor, we weren’t rich, we definitely weren’t bored.

I don’t remember being bored. We were marched to church by DM on the morning (long walk), came home and DM started the Sunday roast - which we always had, because DGP lived with us and it was not optional. After a big lunch we all helped with the washing up etc and it seemed like only a few hours later it was time for a cold tea, bit of telly, bath and bed. I was easily entertained though, always happy with a book or colouring etc. It was nice just not having to go to school.

My parents would have breakfast in bed with the papers & just a chilled day. Some baking & cooking; trip to the park & mass.