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Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

Posh hobbies for children - Skiing/ Sailing/ horse riding

87 replies

MamaLlama123 · 27/02/2024 20:46

wondering how common these posh hobbies are?? do your children do any?!

how much would it cost for children to learn

OP posts:
MamaLlama123 · 27/02/2024 20:47

also other ideas for posh hobbies...

OP posts:
PossumintheHouse · 27/02/2024 20:51

Chess, wine tasting, fencing, debate.

mitogoshi · 27/02/2024 20:51

Mine skied because I wanted to go, they sailed because I like sailing and one horse rides her choice. Rarely would kids do the first two without parents being there

Chickenrunning · 27/02/2024 20:51

? Sailing isn’t necessarily posh? My DS learned v cheaply in central London. We don’t aim to buy a boat though!

Pastlast · 27/02/2024 20:53

Why does it matter if they are posh? Sailing is great, I learnt to sail as a child and my dad stacked shelves at a supermarket. he built his own boat from a kit.

my kids learn. We pay the club fees for a not very posh sailing club with a great kids programme around (£350) a year for the family and £80 per child for the tuition. They use the club boats but at some point we may have to buy our own. I’m still sailing the boat my dad built.

it’s not free but it’s not out of reach for the average family.

OrlandointheWilderness · 27/02/2024 20:53

My Dd used to ride. She shoots now. Shooting lessons are £70 an hour + cartridges (approx £15 a lesson). That includes gun hire though.
No she does not have lessons every week 😂

Dancingdrums · 27/02/2024 21:00

Golf?

TenderChicken · 27/02/2024 21:03

I grew up skiing regularly as lived near a mountain. I don't have the money to take my kids. My daughter rides, which costs £22 per lesson + £10 for pony club after.

Rowing? I used to row, you need to have a river and a club near you. It wasn't that expensive.

coureur · 27/02/2024 21:05

Skiing every year. It’s not cheap, especially once they are school age and you have to go during school holidays, but wouldn’t miss it for the world. We drive down and always go self catering (sharing with friends) but don’t skimp on the skiing. I’d rather stay in a tiny cramped apartment in Val Thorens or Tignes then a luxury chalet somewhere with uninspiring skiing and crap snow. For a family of four sharing an apartment with another family you’re looking at around £4,000 for the week during February half term. That includes accommodation, lift passes, food, fuel, tolls and Eurotunnel. If you don’t own your own gear then hire costs on top of that.

Chilto · 27/02/2024 21:05

Chess is cheap but lots of private school kids as those schools most likely to have chess clubs. Ditto bridge.

PuttingDownRoots · 27/02/2024 21:05

Rugby... that tends to be either very posh or right at the ther end of the scale.

YouTulip · 27/02/2024 21:05

Why do you want your children to do ‘posh hobbies’?

pinkhousesarebest · 27/02/2024 21:06

I think horse riding in the UK is very expensive. We live in France, my dd has ridden for many years every week with lots of her friends. It’s not at all elitist. What is elitist here is golf.
Also, can your daughter not just choose the activity she wants to? Why must it be posh?

MandyRiceDavies · 27/02/2024 21:06

Beagling, shooting, stalking…

boomingaround · 27/02/2024 21:06

Tennis, lacrosse, rackets

Peakypolly · 27/02/2024 21:06

Polo Is a fairly expensive hobby, generally riding less so.
My DD's play water polo and that can be niche, but doesn't cost much.
Lacrosse is another sport that tends to be seen as posh, but it just happens to be played at certain schools.

twingiraffes · 27/02/2024 21:08

Horse riding isn't posh unless you are posh. I spent my entire adolescence at the local riding stables, and I grew up on a council estate. I earned my rides by doing stable yard chores.

APurpleSquirrel · 27/02/2024 21:08

DD does horse riding, it costs £22 per 45min lesson every two weeks. She will not be getting a pony!

EverlastingStar · 27/02/2024 21:10

My DC have done all of these and they're definitely not hobbies just holiday stuff

PuttingDownRoots · 27/02/2024 21:12

Fives.

Its a ball game played at a handful of Public Schools...

Elephantswillnever · 27/02/2024 21:12

I wouldn’t necessarily say they are posh hobbies. It’s really dependant on having good local resources. My kids ski at at a 120m dry ski slope next to a primary, state school, council run. It’s less than £6 a lesson and that includes full kit hire. We did ski on snow up at Glenshee this year which felt £££s

Also used to have a family membership at a local sailing club for less than £250 a year. They do free lessons for children every Sunday in the season.

Im quite keen on kids learning to do outdoor stuff so put time and money into this. Often free stuff once you’ve purchased the kit. Paddle boards, kayaks. Just petrol and a picnic and out to the local loch.

MavisTheMonkey · 27/02/2024 21:21

I grew up firmly working class in a council house but am now probably middle class due to income and I said to my husband the other day, if someone had told me when we met that our kids' hobbies would be skiing, horse riding and rugby I would have said no way, but here we are.

My husband loved skiing and got me into it, now the kids love it more than we do- we try to go once a year and budget is around £8k for the week.

My DD rides- it's the only hobby she's ever expressed an interest in and she loved it from the off. To start with was crazy expensive at £45 per lesson, now she's in pony club so £28 per lesson.

My DS got into rugby after playing it at school. That's actually the best value activity either of them does at £21 a month subs.

In my opinion what makes a hobby posh is how accessible it is; can you do it without special classes / facilities. This is the reason football and basketball are two of the most popular sports in the world- one piece of equipment, a relatively small open space and away you go.

Saschka · 27/02/2024 21:42

DS has skied since toddlerhood, but then my brother is a snowboard instructor, and we lived in Canada until DS was 2.5 so spent a lot of time doing snowy activities. We go once a year, given the option I’d go twice but we can’t afford to currently (mostly because we are tied to school holidays).

He also plays rugby, because we did Rugbytots, and that was because when we tried the football equivalents, they were full of very over-invested Dads shouting at their toddlers. In contrast Rugbytots was fun and there was no pressure to do anything or be any good at it. He spent quite a lot of the first term sitting on my lap. Moved up to the local club when he was 6, and as a pp says it is a very cheap hobby - subs are £22 per month. Boots/kit are secondhand, they have a resale table in the clubhouse. He does also play football now he’s at school.

He plays tennis because he asked to. We used to knock a ball around in the park during lockdown (when he was 3), and he enjoyed it, so he did some tennis holiday clubs in reception, and still enjoyed it, and so we started proper lessons when he was 5.

We’re middle class but I don’t think we are particularly posh, we live in a two bedroom flat, DS goes to a state school, etc.

mondaytosunday · 27/02/2024 21:59

Wine tasting @PossumintheHouse?!

maeveiscurious · 27/02/2024 22:06

My DCs have played lacrosse and had fencing lessons at primary school. Snowboards lesson for £10 per week at local snow dome. Climbing at school
And a local centre. Riding lessons if they mucked out at a local centre. Normal rather than "posh"

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