Was anyone else not ferried around as a child to various clubs?

[Imgonnaleaveyou58]

I have one sibling and we were driven to a trampolining club one evening a week by our parents, which we appreciated. These days kids seem to have eye-wateringly expensive hobbies on 4 or 5 evenings a week which they're driven all over the place for? It's important to partake in hobbies and sporting activities but I think the kids are spoilt tbh.

No kid needs to be taken to clubs every single night of the week, they're allowed to be bored/at home/entertain themselves sometimes and parents are allowed to spend money on themselves and do things for them.
I just think it's all gone mad.

There were six of us (5 girls, 1 boy). My f wouldn't have wasted his time or money on petrol to ferry us around, but he wouldn't have paid for clubs either. He regarded daughters as a pointless drain on his finances.

We all left at the first possible opportunity and never went back. 😁

I gladly drive my ds anywhere, I enjoy being with him.

I did lots of hobbies - horse riding,.two instruments, dance, swimming. In the holidays I had tennis lessons and sailing lessons. I still felt like I had heaps of time to play and to relax

We didn't watch much TV though

My children's lives are similar. Tutors, several time consuming and enriching hobbies each. And plenty of time hanging out with friends too . Again. They don't watch a lot of TV or spend much time gaming /On phones. DS does find time to read a lot though.

We went to Brownies/Guides/Cubs at our parents instigation once a week and I played an instrument in school and joined the school band, on Saturdays I went to riding lessons which I asked for - we were usually busy enough with homework etc after school from what I remember! Dad usually had the car so minimal ferrying but did walk to the local church hall etc.

I only did rainbows/brownies and swimming outside of school. I did seem to do quite a lot of afterschool clubs at primary school...art, calligraphy, netball, recorder 😂.

No, not at all. Walked to brownies/guides (on my own), took the bus to my art club at the weekend. It wouldn’t have even occurred to me or my parents to drive. They owned a car but it was rarely used - just for weekend outings or visiting relatives really. I think this was commonplace in the 70s and early 80s.

YABU because in the old days, there were more things to do locally, i.e. within walking distance of home and it was normal just to do things you could do locally whether scouts/guides, youth club, sports, etc. Nowadays there's often nothing within walking distance of peoples' homes now we have all the sprawling edge of town housing estates and places like youth clubs/scouts etc have closed. Even things like armed forces and police cadets are located in out of town places like sports centres that you need to drive to because there are no buses in the evenings! People need to stop knocking modern children/parents and realise that everything has changed over the past few decades.

I was. I'm 42. Started with ballet and Rainbows, then swimming and Brownies, then piano and Guides. I also did primary school netball and mum used to help with driving the team to away games.

DS did swimming and rugby for a bit but now just does football which is enough to be honest as it's a practice and a game every week plus summer tournaments.

I had lots of classes and clubs. I ferried myself on my bike.

Well we didn’t have a car, so no 🤷‍♀️ We either walked or got on a bus if we wanted to go anywhere. As did our friends.

There are loads of kids in our town park with a football - they're just older. I'm not letting DS8 go on his own; there are some really strange people hanging about in parks.

I loved going to clubs as a kid. But as my family were poor and I had to walk or get the bus, I went to all the clubs held in the local community centre or church hall. They were very cheap.

I think some of it is performative patenting - there were a couple of stay at home mums in my DSs primary school who would talk about how run off their feet they were having to take Tarquin to Tuba and Hetty to hockey etc. etc. - the school provided after-school activities were never quite good enough.

I did a lot of sport in school, and would train after school then go home myself, and get a bus to weekend matches/competitions.

I'm from a large family and we had a low income, I went to majorettes a few times because my neighbour took me & that was it. No clubs or activities after school or in the holidays & my sisters & I played outdoors on our council estate & caused a bit of mischief here & there. My son went to football & as he got order cricket & I loved going along & watching him BUT I only had 1 child. I desperately wanted to learn to read music & play an instrument as a child but we didn't have the money & I ensured my son was offered anything he fancied but he was not interested. I remember at the time thinking how we as parents were in the position to provide our son with almost any opportunity after school & felt quite proud that we could do that even though he wasn't interested

I usually got a lift to/from hockey training one evening a week (my dad would alternate with a friend's mum) and I'd get dropped off for hockey matches on a Saturday morning, but I'd have to get the bus home. I was a goalkeeper so had a lot of kit to lug around.

Other things were in walking distance or at school - Guides, music lessons, after school sports, so no lifts needed or offered.

I’m in my late 20s. I did quite a lot of hobbies growing up because I enjoyed trying as many new things as possible. Most of them (choir, drama, violin and singing lessons, sports etc) were in school and didn’t require me to be driven anywhere, I just stayed behind after school to do them or sometimes did them at lunch. The only thing I did outside of school was dance. I have no idea if most schools still offer the same extracurricular activities as my children haven’t reached that age yet, but if they don’t maybe that’s part of the problem as parents need to go elsewhere to give their children these opportunities.

I never went to clubs as I would have hated every second of it

No clubs other than brownies and later swimming lessons for me. My kids had swimming plus one other activity (in the nineties). My grandkids do about two each, martial arts and ballet type things.

Is it though? I wouldn't have thought those comments performative because they would have just seemed normal to me.

My DM was a single mum and didn’t drive, so we never got driven anywhere! In fact she didn’t even walk us, we’d take ourselves off to Brownies or wherever on foot.

I mean isn't it just as simple as people wanting to do the best they can for their own children? Some kids are happy at home, some kids are happier being super busy, some families can afford multiple activities, some can't?

Most families have two working parents so it's not always an option to have children just at home doing whatever. We couldn't have the kids home when they were little so they were super busy. Turns out they both enjoy being busy.

My daughter is autistic and really struggles socially. She has situational mutism and doesn't do well with most kids her age. What she does do well is dance - so she has dance class many, many hours a week and is super happy there. Over the summer when she's home more often she is distinctly less happy. It keeps her fit and healthy and really, really strong - all things that are super important for me as I'm none of those. She has something like 15 hours of dance a week plus school and homework and tutoring but that leaves an awful lot of time for crafts and baking.

We didn't have a car, but i was taken to brownies/guides and maybe an after school thing and I would try new hobbies and drop out at the term end because I didn't like them,

My own children are late 20s to mid 30s they had hobbies and groups and music lessons so maybe 3/4 times a week, it isn't a a new phenomenon .

I don't think broadening children's interests and letting them socialise outside the home is a bad thing and I don't think any of their activities were a waste of time or money,

I was born in 1950,late. parents didn't have a car,so I wasn't ferried anywhere. I had ballet lessons in the village hall,guitar lessons in my teens in the grounds of my school. Youth club was next door to the school,got a bus there.

I don't think there were clubs to join when I was young other than Brownies or Speech and Drama.

Between my 2 children they are out 6 days a week at various activities. They do play out in their bikes etc off a weekend/in the holidays.

my kids have to to be driven to their activities because of their ages. I plan my hobbies around theirs. I stopped going to the weekly pub quiz with friends because it was on the one day both my kids have to be in 2 different places at the same time.

My childhood in a nutshell! Discovered painting in my sixties after I was widowed. To see my grandchildren perform (one acting, one playing an instrument) gives me an incredible amount of joy, but tinged with a little sadness and envy.